Injured tourist driven eight hours across Simpson Desert to meet RFDS plane

A French tourist who broke his leg in the middle of the Simpson Desert is driven for eight hours over sand dunes at night.

Rescuing people from remote areas is nothing out of the ordinary for the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS).

But on Monday night it had a slightly more logistically challenging retrieval from the middle of the Simpson Desert in South Australia, after a French tourist broke his leg in a motorcycle accident.

The patient was brought out by people who had been driving past, a trip that took eight hours over sand dunes at night.

And the airstrip the patient was taken to did not have lights, so the RFDS had to bring their own.

Chief pilot Damien Health said the rescue had been a fantastic effort from everyone on the ground, and the service could not have done it without them.

“We got a call that a person was injured out in the middle of the Simpson Desert. They were about 200km from the nearest runway that we were able to get to,” he said…

Source: Passers-by and locals help Royal Flying Doctor Service after motorcyclist breaks leg in middle of Simpson Desert – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)