Mr Button a pioneer of rescue services

Press, 21 November 1987, Page 1

Mr Button a pioneer of rescue services

PA Wellington Peter Thomas Button, aged 59, yesterday died as he had lived — serving the community in his Bell Jetranger helicopter. His life ended in the crash of his red and orange rescue helicopter but it is hoped that it was not the end of the rescue service he spent 10 years fighting officialdom to set up. Such was Mr Button’s esteem in the community that the official confirmation of his death came from the Minister of Transport, Mr Jeffries. .

Mr Button was a former plumber, real estate agent, and insurance broker turned helicopter pilot. He began flying with the Wellington Aero Club in fixed-wing aircraft in 1949. He gained a commercial licence and regularly flew charters for the club.

The Wahine disaster in 1968 disturbed him, as he said there had to be better ways of getting people off a sinking ship. Later there was an incident in bush at the back of Wainuiomata. A man was shot and the only way to get him out • was by helicopter. The nearest was in Christchurch and it ran out of daylight getting up the coast. When it finally arrived the man was dead.

That was the final straw for Mr Button. He formed his own company, Capital Helicopters, and bought a lightweight Hughes 300 helicopter. It was a brave move, because at that time he could not fly the machines. It was not until the following year that he gained a commercial rotorwing licence. Hundreds of people have reason to be thankful he did. Many of them owe him their lives.

In 1977 he bought the more powerful Jetranger which was to

become as familiar round Wellington as the Beehive. With sponsorship from Westpac Bank, first the Wales Rescue Service, then (with the change of the bank’s name) the Westpac Rescue Service began. . ' By 1982 Mr Button and his helicopter had become a legend. He had stopped counting the number of rescues he had been involved in. The community Had not. He was awarded the OJB.E. for his work. ‘ Three of his most spectacular rescues have occurred during the last few years.’ One' involved travelling 185 km out to sea — the limit of the Jetranger’s range — to uplift a seriously ill Soviet seaman. The second involved an upturned fishing boat in Island Bay where lives were saved solely because of his flying skills. The one that had even expert pilots searching for superlatives involved the rescue in atrocious conditions of two policemen who had been on board the ill-fated police launch Lady Elizabeth 11. The launch overturned in a storm off Pencarrow Head on July 2, last year. In winds reaching lOOkm/h and with seas as high as 10m, Mr Button and his son, Clive, flew between the crests of the waves to pluck the lauhchmaster, Senior Constable Jim McLean, and a crewman, Constable Ron Herd, from the sea. On Wednesday Mr Button received the Queen’s Gallantry Medal and Clive Button received the Queen’s Commendation for Bravery for that rescue. . Within hours Mi* Button was back on the job picking up a critically ill tramper from the bush.

That was typical of Mr Button. He is survived ,by his wife, Carole, two sons , and three daughters.

Further report, page 8