Ten people were medivaced by Royal Flying Doctor service place to Alice Springs Hospital following a bus crash north of tennant creek this morning. Police, ambulance, fire crews and NTES members attended the scene from Tennant Creek and Elliott to assist in the rescue which resulted in the Stuart Highway being closed to traffic for several hours while the scene was measured and the bus was removed. Five people were flown directly from the Bootu Creek Mine airfield to Alice Springs Hospital while another three adults and two children were airlifted from the Tennant Creek Hospital where they had been transported earlier in the day. Among the group flown from the mine was a 37-year-old man who was trapped under the bus for several hours following the crash. A crane from Bootu Creek Mine was used to lift the bus off the man so he could be extricated. He remains in the Alice Springs Hospital with a fractured eye socket.
Police investigating the crash said there were 16 adults, including the driver, and three children aboard when the northbound bus hit a culvert on the Stuart Highway 122 kilometres north of Tennant Creek just before 5.30am this morning. Investigations into the cause of the crash are continuing and no further details are available at this stage. Media contact: Theresa Kuilboer 8951 8825 0419 803 603