Job cut for award-winner rescue boss

ON THE JOB: Life Flight's operations manager and helicopter crewman Dave Greenberg.

A helicopter rescue veteran who has served with the Life Flight Trust for 23 years has been told his operations position is being disestablished.

Operations manager and Westpac rescue helicopter crewman Dave Greenberg, familiar to those in the region from TV series Life Flight - and to the many people he has winched aboard - will have to reapply for a new position as Life Flight undergoes restructuring.

Life Flight chairman Bill Day said under a management review Life Flight was introducing two new positions, aviation services manager and health and safety manager.

"We'll be advertising those roles shortly," he said.

"He [Greenberg] will be given an opportunity to apply for those jobs."

Mr Day said the restructure was a strengthening of aviation health and safety and operational requirements.

"We want to have the best structure we can have, and we need people in roles that can do these things.

"We've got a lot of experience - it just needs more concentration, breaking down into more specific roles."

Mr Day would not comment on Mr Greenberg's role as helicopter crewman if he was not successful in an application.

Mr Greenberg, a former New Yorker, became involved with Wellington's rescue helicopter from 1991, starting as a volunteer.

He has been involved in more than 3500 rescues and received a Search and Rescue Award for his involvement in the recovery of an Air Force crewman from a crashed Iroquois helicopter on Anzac Day 2011.