Injured fisherman airlifted to Wellington

Life Flight air ambulance. File picture / Oamaru Mail

A fisherman whose hand was crushed in a piece of machinery has been airlifted from the Chatham Islands to Hutt Hospital.

The Wellington based Life Flight NZ Air Ambulance picked up the 54-year-old Australian man who was working on a New Zealand-registered fishing vessel.

The boat contacted the Maritime Operations Centre in Lower Hutt after the fisherman was injured around 4.30am today. The man was given pain relief and treated by his fellow fisherman, after medical advice was obtained via Life Flight and Wellington Hospital.

Once the seriousness of the injury was known the NZ Rescue Co-ordination Centre was contacted to arrange evacuation of the man from the Chatham Islands.

"Luckily the boat was only about four hours off the Chatham Islands when the injury occurred," said Life Flight crew chief Dave Greenberg.

"The boat made it's best speed into the Chats while we got ourselves organised for another trip out there".

The boat arrived in Waitangi Harbour at 10.45am and the injured man was taken to the Chatham Island Airport were Life Flight NZ was waiting.

A nurse from Wellington Hospital ICU who was on the plane reported that there was one badly damaged finger on the injured man's left hand, but the injury was not life threatening.