Fewer rescue missions with helicopters during sports vacations
Published: Monday, Mar 4th 2024, 13:11
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During the sports vacations in February, Rega, Air-Glaciers and Air Zermatt flew fewer rescue missions than in the previous year. However, the rescue companies point out that the accident statistics are heavily dependent on the weather.
Swiss Air-Rescue (Rega) carried out 1,500 missions in February, as the company informed the Keystone-SDA news agency on request. This is 200 fewer flights than in the previous year, 100 fewer than in 2022 and around the same number as in 2021.
Almost 40 percent of all Rega missions in February were due to winter sports accidents. The helicopter crews were also frequently called out to help people with acute illnesses (32 percent).
Air-Glaciers helicopters take off on 85 percent of all missions for sports injuries. In February, the aircraft of the Valais-based company flew 571 missions. That is around 80 fewer than in the same period last year (652).
Worse weather
A difference of 80 missions in one month is not unusual, said Air Glaciers spokesman Gael Gillioz on request. "Our helicopters carry out between 20 and 30 flights a day, and up to 40 flights on very busy days. So two or three days of bad weather, when people ski less, are enough to explain this difference," the spokesman explained.
In February 2024, the weather was generally slightly worse than in the same month last year, he added. A look at the weather data confirms that February 2023 actually had an above-average number of sunny days.
Air Zermatt carried out around 300 rescue missions with its helicopters in February. This represents a slight decrease compared to the previous year. The rescue crews were mainly called out to winter sports accidents in the Upper Valais ski resorts.
According to Rega, however, most accidents on the ski slopes are not serious enough for a rescue helicopter to be called out at all. Accordingly, the piste patrollers decide whether or not a helicopter is needed based on the injury.
Rega helicopters are only deployed in around 2.7 percent of all winter sports accidents on Swiss slopes.
©Keystone/SDA
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