Because of bad weather
Rega with rather quiet holidays
The Swiss Air-Rescue (Rega) helicopter crews had a rather quiet holiday season: they flew around 70 missions from Christmas Eve up to and including St. Stephen’s Day. The reason for this was the relatively bad weather.
A Rega helicopter deployed on the ski slope. (archive image)
According to a Rega statement on Monday, the most common reason for the helicopter missions was serious or acute illnesses in people, such as strokes and cardiovascular diseases. But winter sports accidents also triggered Rega flights.
On Monday afternoon, above Stallikon ZH, Rega flew out a man who had fallen on a stairway on the Albis. He could not go any further due to an injury to his knee and had to be flown out with a rescue hoist.
In general, the weather conditions, leisure behavior and travel activity of the population had an impact on the number of Rega missions, as the Rega writes. In addition to Rega helicopters, Rega ambulance jets were also deployed over the Christmas period. This all over the world.
A year ago, Rega reported that the cold, wet weather at Christmas had led to relatively few missions. At that time, Rega recorded around 100 missions. Between Christmas Eve and St. Stephen’s Day 2018, Rega had to be deployed more than 110 times in an emergency.
(SDA)