Rescue operation hits close to home

The night before his daughter Madeleine set out to hike the Heaphy Track in Kahurangi National Park, Dave Wilson gave her his personal locator beacon (PLB).

An experienced tramper, Madeleine had already tackled all of New Zealand’s Great Walks, so didn’t think she’d need to use it. But given her dad’s role as Lead Advisor at the Rescue Coordination Centre, she strapped it onto her backpack anyway.

Four days later, Search and Rescue Officer Bailey Lovett stood in the doorway of Dave’s office. The look on her face suggested “she’d rather be anywhere else”.

 “Madeleine’s PLB has activated,” Bailey told Dave.

Bailey assured Dave that she and the other search and rescue officers had already started putting a plan in place – including dispatching a rescue helicopter from Nelson – but they hadn’t been able to contact Madeleine.

Dave took a deep breath to calm himself. As the PLB’s owner, he knew all Madeleine’s trip details. “This is really important,” he says. “If you’re going to loan someone your PLB, you need to take some responsibility, including ensuring they know how to use the PLB.” Dave then relayed the information to the search and rescue officers so they could tailor the rescue operation. 

“After that, my job was to not get in the way, which was a bit tough,” Dave says. “But the search and rescue officers are at the top of their game, so there was nothing of any benefit I could have done. I did my best to leave them with it.”

Madeleine had set out with her husband, brother-in-law, and friend on 19 January, and their tramp had gone without incident. It wasn’t until they were on the home stretch, around two kilometres from the car park, that the situation changed.

They heard yelling. A man had fallen, a man they recognised as an Australian tourist from a group they’d passed earlier on the walk. He’d gone ahead of the rest of his group and was now lying alone in the bush, about ten metres down a bank. He clutched his ankle and said it was broken. 

Fortunately, Madeleine knew exactly what to do. She activated the PLB and left it with her tramping partners, instructing them to stay where they were while she ran towards the car park in the hope of getting cell phone coverage.

Shortly after, back at the Rescue Coordination Centre, Dave’s phone rang. Madeleine was on the line. Her first words were, “Hey, I’m okay.” She then explained what had happened. Dave walked into the operations room and handed the phone to the search and rescue officers. Madeleine was able to provide some really helpful details, including the tree coverage that could prove a challenge for the rescue helicopter.

What happened next was like any normal search and rescue, which Dave said was really important. “That’s always the best rescue operation – when we let the team do their thing without interfering.”

Meanwhile, Madeleine had returned to the site. Her role was to keep everyone calm, including the injured man’s companions, who had since arrived, and ensure no one attempted to scale the bank to reach him. As she had predicted, the tree cover posed a challenge. The rescue helicopter lowered a paramedic before landing on a nearby beach. The victim was placed on a stretcher and moved to a location where he could be winched out and flown to hospital.

As well as commending the search and rescue officers on another successful operation, Dave reflected that Madeleine had done all the right things. She has a lot of experience and is always really well prepared. “You minimise the opportunity for something to go wrong if you prepare super well.”

Dave said it’s useful that Madeleine experienced something like this first-hand, especially on a stretch of track where you wouldn’t expect to get into trouble, given it was only a couple of kilometres from the car park.

As for Madeleine’s next tramp, Dave said, “I don’t think she’ll think twice about taking a PLB.”