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Kōrero: Search and rescue

Wellington’s first airborne life raft

Five men, one in a police uniform, holding a box.

From left: Wellington Search and Rescue personnel R. A. Mackay, C. K. Watson, W. G. L. Barrell, Captain G. Henry and Inspector I. Croxford display the first air-dropped life-raft to be used in the Wellington region, in December 1973. Inflatable life-rafts that could be dropped from aircraft were introduced in New Zealand in the early 1970s. They made it possible to help people in trouble at sea who could not be reached quickly by boat or helicopter.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Alexander Turnbull Library, Dominion Post Collection (PA-Group-00685)

Reference: EP/1973/5393/8A

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Nancy Swarbrick rāua ko Dan Clearwater, Search and rescue – Rescue equipment and techniques, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/photograph/13218/wellingtons-first-airborne-life-raft (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Nancy Swarbrick rāua ko Dan Clearwater, i tāngia i te 2 March 2009, reviewed and revised 27 July 2023 me te āwhina o Dan Clearwater.