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Jake Cleal-Cook is a Rescue Crew Officer with the Westpac Life Saver Rescue Helicopter in Sydney, Australia, specialising in helicopter winch operations in the ocean environment. He has been deployed to major flood disasters, conducting winch rescues in complex and rapidly evolving conditions where access, information and time are often limited. Alongside his aviation role, Jake is a senior flood rescue operator with the NSW State Emergency Service, contributing to the development of modern flood rescue capability through his role as the chair of the Service’s Capability Development Group. Jake is driven to improve outcomes in flood and aviation rescue and continues to share his learnings in a range of forums including his podcast, Rescue Ready.
The rescue jobs were stacking up faster than we could respond. In May 2025, severe flooding overwhelmed communities on Australia’s east coast, leaving hundreds of people trapped on rooftops and cut off by rising water. Helicopters became a lifeline but even then, there were moments when crews simply couldn’t get to everyone. In this presentation I’ll walk the audience through my front-line operational experience as a helicopter Rescue Crew Officer deployed to this flood. Unlike a typical ocean helicopter rescue, this mass flood rescue required operating across both rural and urban environments, sharing tasking between multiple agencies, and rapidly adapting existing training and equipment to suit a fast-paced, challenging environment. Since the flood, lessons have been implemented to save time and increase operator safety – both in the air and on the ground, during mass flood rescue events.