Medical service plane lands on Australian highway due to rain — ABC News Australia
In Australia, a Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) aircraft landed on the Eyre Highway to urgently transport a patient from the Eucla medical post to a hospital in Kalgoorlie. The airstrip in Eucla, on the Nullarbor Plain, was closed by rain, while work to provide it with a sealed surface has not yet begun due to bureaucratic and planning delays, ABC News Australia reports.
The aerodrome is located 1,200 kilometres east of Perth, on the border between Western Australia and South Australia. The nearest accessible hospitals are located about 500 kilometres to the west and 700 kilometres to the east. The dirt runway becomes unusable after rainfall: according to the local council, three millimetres of rain are enough for this.
Landing on a nine-metre road
On 7 October, police closed the highway in both directions for about two and a half hours so the aircraft could land and take off. RFDS pilot Elias Goh said the aircraft made a low pass before landing to check the road surface, traffic and nearby road signs.
The road is about nine metres wide. According to the pilot, such a road is significantly narrower than even a narrow runway, making it difficult to judge distance during landing. Before take-off, people present had to push the aircraft backwards to turn it into the wind.
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Upgrade delayed
The state’s 2024 budget allocated $3.3 million for upgrading the aerodrome. A state government spokesperson said the funding remains available, but the project requires a complete redesign, environmental approval and confirmation of permits related to Indigenous land rights.
Dundas Shire Council president Laurine Bonza said the local authorities have been seeking an upgrade to the aerodrome for about 15 years. According to her, approvals concerning Indigenous land rights had already been obtained four times, and repeated studies were not needed. She also believes that delays could increase the project’s initial cost of $4.5 million.
Eucla roadside business owner Rasa Patupis, who has lived on the state border for 60 years, said that a patient with suspected appendicitis had previously been transported by ambulance to Kalgoorlie for 11 hours. Residents stress that a functioning runway is critically important for emergency evacuations.
