RFDS Medi-Jet 24 | Outback highway landing

In 2023, the Royal Flying Doctor Service performed a milestone landing of a RFDS Medi-Jet 24 on the Stuart Highway in Far North SA, as part of a joint training exercise with South Australia Police.

Responding to a fictitious motor vehicle accident scenario, the scheduled exercise comprised two components – a desktop simulation of the activation and communications procedures between SAPOL, RFDS and State Emergency Service (SES), followed by the temporary closure of the Stuart Highway by local authorities to enable the landing of RFDS and SAPOL aircraft.

The RFDS Medi-Jet 24 and SAPOL Pilatus PC12 aircraft landed on the Traeger Emergency Roadstrip near Glendambo, a designated 1200-metre landing strip incorporated into the Stuart Highway (600 kilometres north of Adelaide) designed specifically for the RFDS and other airborne emergency services.

“Roadstrip landings are logistically complex, which require multi-agency collaboration and seamless coordination and communication between emergency services in the air and the ground to perform quickly and safely," RFDS SA/NT Head of Flight Operations, Damien Heath said.

“Today’s collaboration with SAPOL and local emergency service partners ensures we are all response ready for those in the community when they need it most, not just with our turbo-prop aircraft but now also with our jet aircraft.”

Watch the video above for the full story.