KEY POINTS:
A man given a helicopter ride as a 60th birthday gift from his son was stunned when he realised the pilot was the same man who saved his life 23 years ago after a near-fatal diving accident.
Don Richardson cannot recall the dash to save him after he collapsed unconscious with a burst lung and the bends during a training session.
"It's all a blur and the only real memory I have of any of it was the noises in the [Navy's recompression] chamber," he said.
At yesterday's reunion, he could be forgiven for not recognising the pilot who flew him from Whangarei to Devonport Naval Base as this was the first time he had actually seen him.
"G'day. You probably don't remember me but I'm Tony Monk. I flew you to hospital a few years back," the pilot told his passenger.
"Oh, right, cheers, thanks for that mate," said Mr Richardson.
Mr Richardson, who turned 60 last week, was treated to the birthday flight by his son Darren, who was just 10 years old when his father had his near-death experience.
Mr Richardson's wife, Gillian, said it was "sheer coincidence" their son had chosen Mr Monk's helicopter operation to take him on his flight.
"He had done some looking into it on the internet and thought he would check out Heletranz but you could imagine his surprise when he found out this was the man who saved his father's life."
Mr Richardson was in his mid-thirties and finishing a dive course off the Poor Knights Islands when the drama unfolded.
"We were only diving at about 30 feet but when I came up I couldn't release any air."
The result was an air embolism - bubbles of air trapped in the bloodstream to the brain - and shortly after surfacing, he collapsed on board the dive boat. Staff gave him oxygen and rushed back to Whangarei but the situation was dire.
"They told me if he got through the night he would be very, very lucky," said Mrs Richardson.
But thanks to Mr Monk, who was an agricultural helicopter pilot in Whangarei at the time, Mr Richardson was delivered to Devonport Naval Base's recompression chamber.
Newspapers reported how Mr Monk piloted the aircraft at an altitude of 12m, climbing occasionally to avoid oncoming yachts on the approach to Auckland.
But Mr Monk, who now runs Heletranz Adventures in Albany, did not see himself as a hero.
"The newspapers might have made a big deal of it at the time but it was nothing really flash, to be honest.
"We had to fly low because of his illness and they didn't have rescue helicopters in those days like they do nowadays."
Mr Richardson spent a week receiving recompression therapy, spending up to 12 hours at a time in the chamber, before being transferred to the naval base hospital for two weeks.
He made a full recovery after taking a further two months off work.
Now a contracts manager for a Penrose joinery firm, Mr Richardson said he had never been on a chopper since the accident but was "really looking forward to getting up there".
And he has also never been scuba diving since his accident.
"It's one of those disappointments in life," he said, "but you just have to be grateful for the many things that you do have."
