Heliventures Matt Irving has been awarded an Australian Bravery Decoration
Back in 2018 Heliventures pilot Matt Irving was working over in a mine in the Northern Territory of Australia when he received a call about two travellers stranded in rising flood waters.
A local publican had gone down to the McArthur River to check the water level when he discovered the two men trapped on the roof of their vehicle.
The two men had attempted to drive their camper van over a bridge to get to the nearby pub, but had stalled after driving into rising floodwaters on the Tablelands Highway. As the water level began to rise, they clambered up onto the roof of their camper van and had been trapped there for 24hours before being spotted.
After the police were called, they contacted the mine to see if it had a helicopter available. Mr Irving was then contacted and asked if he could pull the rescue operation off.
Matt and John Waerea, a member of the mine’s rescue team worked with the emergency services to plan the rescue.
Mr Irving carefully manoeuvred his helicopter between trees and delicately hovered above the camper van.
From there, Mr Waerea was able to jump on to the roof of the camper van that was being rocked by the fast flowing river.
“It’s something you have to do smoothly and gently, and with trees being so close I didn’t have the room to move in there, It was dicey .. this was right at the end of the day so it was getting dark, and it was their wet season so there was rain and clouds.”
One at a time the two men were assisted aboard and everyone involved in the rescue was flown to safety.
A representative from the mine nominated Matt and and John for an Australian Bravery Decoration, for their acts of bravery in hazardous circumstances.
The bravery medal Mr Irving has been awarded is the third-highest Australian Bravery Decoration.
“It’s pretty cool – it’s a hard thing to swallow, though, You are just doing what you do.
Everybody has their skill set, and I just used mine.” - Matt