Mercy flights

Abstract

Mercy flights are flights undertaken for humane relief, which cannot be completed without breaching the normal rules of flying safety. We review the mercy flights that were made in Australia during 1980. Most flights were made for medical reasons, and the causes were largely divided between trauma and other medical conditions. The requests for most, but not all flights, were justified. Many had to be declared mercy flights because of mostly remediable deficiencies in outstation airfields.