Bundaberg’s RACQ LifeFlight Rescue helicopter crew has flown an elderly man to hospital, after he was found partly submerged in water, two nights after being reported missing.
It’s believed the man, who is aged in his 80s, had left his North Burnett home to go for a walk in a nearby bushland area with his two pet Jack Russell Terriers on Monday afternoon.
His family alerted authorities when he didn’t return home, sparking a huge multi-agency search on the ground and from the air.
During the two nights he was missing, minimum temperatures dropped to single digits and concerns for his safety were growing.
This afternoon (Weds 27th) family and volunteers on foot, quad bikes and horseback were assisting emergency services with the search, when some dogs began barking at the horses.
The searchers realised the pets belonged to the missing man, prompting them to thoroughly search the immediate area.
They found him obscured by rocks and partly submerged in water.
It is believed he had fallen.
The RACQ LifeFlight Rescue chopper had been tasked by Queensland Police Service (QPS) to assist in the search this afternoon.
Rescuers told the chopper crew the man had been extremely difficult to spot, and it was only the barking of his dogs, that alerted them to his location.
The helicopter pilot landed the aircraft near the scene, where the Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) Flight Paramedic treated the man for hypothermia.
He was flown to Bundaberg Hospital for further treatment.
