RACQ LifeFlight saves eight travellers stranded by floodwaters near Mt Isa

It’s been a busy week for the RACQ LifeFlight rescue chopper team, which has saved eight travellers, including a man stranded for two days. Watch the video of the dramatic rescue.

An RACQ LifeFlight helicopter has arrived just in the nick of time to avert a New Year’s disaster and save a man stranded in the wilderness for two days.

The man, who was travelling in remote, North West Queensland when his vehicle became bogged on a waterlogged road, is the eighth person rescued by the Mount Isa rescue chopper since Monday.

The chopper crew were alerted to the potential danger at 9am on Thursday morning by Queensland Police, after the traveller failed to reach his planned destination on time.

The man was reported missing after he set out from Doomadgee to travel to Mount Isa on Tuesday morning, but wasn’t heard form after he called in from a cattle station in the Lawn Hill National Park area.

The chopper flew along the man’s planned route until they found his car, bogged in by floodwater that had overwhelmed the roads, with the man sleeping inside.

LifeFlight have rescued a man after he spent two days stranded in the wilderness near Mt Isa.

RACQ LifeFlight Rescue Aircrew Officer Billy McCreadie said the man had made the right call in returning to his vehicle and waiting for assistance.

“He was in good spirits when we picked him up, though somewhat sunburnt as he had gone for a walk to see if anything was nearby but returned to his car, which was the right thing to do,” Officer McCreadie said.

The Mount Isa RACQ LifeFlight Rescue helicopter.

The man was flown to Mt Isa hospital in order to undergo further observation.

There’s been no shortage of people in need of assistance this week, with the helicopter and it’s crew bailing seven other individuals out of trouble after they got into strife travelling through outback Queensland.

On Wednesday, the crew saved a man and woman who had become bogged while travelling from Mount Isa to Darwin, after they became stranded about 30km outside of Urandangi.

Another helicopter, which had joined the search from a local cattle station, spotted the couple and transported them to safety where they were then picked up by the RACQ LifeFlight helicopter and taken back to Mount Isa.

On Boxing Day, the crew located and flown five people who had become stranded on Christmas Eve after their vehicle broke down while travelling along a remote road in the North West of Queensland.

One woman from that group walked 35km along the waterlogged dirt roads they’d become trapped on before she was spotted by the chopper crew and all five were rescued.

Originally published as RACQ LifeFlight saves eight travellers stranded by floodwaters near Mt Isa