Search & Rescue Services opens Taupō air ambulance training center for H145 fleet upgrade

Central North Island’s first dedicated rescue helicopter training center has opened in Taupō, as Search & Rescue Services launched its Miro Street Centre of Excellence, a purpose-built training facility and operational headquarters for its national air ambulance helicopter service. The opening was blessed by Ngāti Tūwharetoa last Monday.

The center will train crews operating a fleet including Airbus H145 aircraft, part of a NZ$128 million investment by Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora and ACC. It houses an Entrol H145 simulator with mixed and augmented reality hoist training, alongside a Laerdal clinical simulator and remote-enabled assessment systems, enabling full-crew, scenario-based training across complex environments.

The company recently acquired three pre-owned Airbus H145 D3 helicopters from helicopter dealership Rotortrade.

“Every day, our crews are asked to make difficult decisions in difficult places – on a mountain face, above the deck of a vessel, on the side of a road, or while transporting critically unwell patients between hospitals. This facility gives our people a safe place to train for those unsafe environments, so they can be the best lifeline they can be for the people who need them most,” said Paul Baxter, Chief Executive of Search & Rescue Services.

The organization operates from eight bases with more than 150 staff, with air ambulance demand rising 22% in five years, making the new training center and fleet upgrade a significant capability uplift for New Zealand’s emergency air medical system.

US-based air ambulance operator Life Flight Network has purchased two Airbus H145 D3 helicopters from Rotortrade.