‘WE WON'T STOP UNTIL EVERYONE IS SAFE'

JESSICA AND MICHAEL LOST THEIR HOME, BUT USED THEIR CHOPPER TO RESCUE OTHERS

- Keeley Henderson

It’s difficult to hear Jessica Barnes over the loud burr of helicopter rotors. “We’re still sending food out,” she shouts from a hangar in Lismore Airport, northern NSW.

“We’ve just loaded up the next helicopter to head out to an indigenous community up in the hills.”

Jessica, 29, and her pilot husband Michael, 32, run two aviation businesses, Fly Byron and Rotorwing Helicopter Services.

But for the past three weeks they’ve worked round the clock in extreme weather conditions, rescuing people from rooftops and delivering life-saving supplies to communities still cut off by the floods.

Their rescue mission began on February 28 when they had to pluck their own children, Bailey, 2, and Beau, 1, from their beds to escape the rising water at their home.

“At 5.30am my husband ran in and said, ‘You’ve got 30 seconds to get the kids. Forget your shoes,’” recalls Jessica.

The flood had already reached the belly of the helicopter and they had mere minutes to escape.

“The kids were still in their PJs, I just ripped them out of bed and put them in life jackets. The helicopter was about 150 metres away on a large mound. We couldn’t get across by foot, but our neighbour had a small tinnie, so we all jumped in that and went across to the helicopter.

“We watched our hangar be torn apart by the water. All the doors ripped off.”

Michael flew Jessica and the kids to a nearby Westpac helicopter base for shelter, but it wasn’t long before he was up in the skies again.