About Us

Philips Search and Rescue Trust is the charity responsible for New Zealand’s largest pool of community helicopters. Encompassing six rescue helicopters and two fixed-wing planes, the rapid response service provides air health search and rescue services free of charge to the public on a no-fault basis.

Available through the emergency 111 call system, our rapid response rescue helicopters bring life-saving equipment, rescue personnel and trauma-trained medics directly to the patient.

Engaged when time is critical or accessibility is compromised, our search and rescue helicopters serve the Waikato – King Country, Bay of Plenty, Central Plateau and Manawatu – Whanganui communities. Providing timely assistance can reduce disability and improve survival – the sooner resuscitation and treatment begins the greater chance of patient recovery.

Powered by an experienced professional crew of pilots, paramedics, flight nurses and volunteer crewmen, in a life and death situation it is this speed and agility that can make all the difference, with patients able to receive urgent medical treatment while en route to a medical facility.

Always rescue ready, your local rescue helicopter is an essential emergency service for your community.

Westpac Air Ambulance

Philips Search and Rescue Trust also own and operate New Zealand’s Westpac Air Ambulance. Nationally recognised, the Westpac Air Ambulance is an accredited provider of Level 1 and 2 aero-medical transport services. Flying bedside-to-bedside, the highly experienced medical crew can accommodate one or two stretcher patients, non-stop, to any location in New Zealand.

Dispatched through the emergency 111-call system, your local rescue helicopter can be called to any of the following missions:

• Emergency air ambulance response
• Search and rescue
• Winch operations
• Night operations
• Time critical inter-hospital transfers
• AOS / SAR / Fire

When needed, your local rescue helicopters will be there, 24/7, 365 days a year.

Over 30,000 people owe their lives to one of the Trust’s rescue helicopters. Philips Search & Rescue all began with one single act of compassion.

In 1985 two senior Philips executives and a pilot lost their lives in a light aircraft accident, just south of Turangi. Philips instigated at that time, what was and probably still is, New Zealand’s largest privately organised search, which eventually found the lost aircraft.

After their loss, it became apparent to Philips that if a rescue service had been available, their executives and pilot may have survived. So, as a legacy to the country, Philips endowed what was to become Philips Search & Rescue Trust with the objective of providing the highest possible standard of air rescue and emergency helicopters to serve the people of the central North Island and wider areas of New Zealand.

Flight operations commenced in 1985, with a single engine, part-time helicopter based in Taupo and quickly gained a reputation as an effective operational unit, particularly within the specialist search and rescue field.

In October 1987, PSRT was made a dedicated, full-time rescue service. Philips Search & Rescue Trust (PSRT) is now the charity responsible for the North Island’s largest pool of community helicopters.

30 years on from that fatal flight, PSRT continues to provide air health and rescue services, free of charge, funded largely by the communities they are based in.