Police on Tasmania’s Westpac Rescue Helicopters were busy yesterday, conducting five rescue missions across the state.

1. At 7am, the helicopter attended a serious single vehicle crash on Masons Road at Nugent. A 20-year-old woman was flown to the Royal Hobart Hospital in a serious but stable condition.

2. At 12:30pm, a Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) activation was detected at the Leven River. A man and a woman aged in their 60s from South Australia were winched from the area after the woman suffered a shoulder injury. The woman was flown to the North West Regional Hospital.

3. At 4:30pm, while on route to the North West Regional Hospital in Burnie, the helicopter then conducted a medivac of a 37-year-old man bitten by a tiger snake in Strahan. He was transported to the Royal Hobart Hospital in a stable condition.

4. Also at 4:30pm, another PLB activated was detected near Waratah. The second Westpac Rescue Helicopter was activated from Hobart to rescue an adult and three children lost near Philosopher Falls. They were located and winched from the dense forest.

5. At 6:50pm, two women aged in their 30s from Derby activated an emergency device from the Crossing River in southwest Tasmania. The women were on an expedition which involved pack rafting the Crossing River into the Davey River to their destination Melaleuca. The women became trapped in a gorge and one of them suffered an ankle injury. They were rescued from the gorge in a high-winch operation and returned to Hobart.

• Following the busy day, at 7:30am this morning a PLB activation was detected in the Frankland Range in Southwest Tasmania. The Westpac Rescue Helicopter was activated to the scene where two men in their 20s were located near the Citadel. One of the men had suffered an ankle injury and was unable to continue. The men were flown to Hobart with the injured man transported to the Royal Hobart Hospital.

“While it was a busy day yesterday for both police helicopters the three incidents which involved remote rescues were made considerably easier and more efficient due to personal locator beacons or other emergency devices being carried by the people involved,” said Constable Josh Peach from Police Search and Rescue.