Rega carried out more than 240 interventions between December 31, 2024 and January 2, 2025 to rescue people in distress, which is 30% more than a year earlier. This is the consequence of the high number of people in the mountains. Air Zermatt is not to be outdone.
A year earlier, the weather was less suitable for mountain excursions and skiing, the Swiss Air Rescue (Rega) explained on Friday. The number of helicopter interventions by rescuers is closely linked to the weather and the influx of mountain recreation enthusiasts and tourists.
More than half of the operations concerned winter sports accidents. The second main cause is linked to illnesses and accidents such as illness and heart attacks. Rega has also been called following traffic accidents, for evacuations and transfers between hospitals.
The Air Rescue Guard was also called upon abroad. The three ambulance jets have been used in recent days to pick up the injured and sick in countries as diverse as Finland, Spain, Morocco, Egypt and Italy, the press release further notes.
Air Zermatt also requested
For its part, Air Zermatt carried out 112 helicopter rescue missions between December 24 and January 2. The company’s ambulances were also heavily used during this period, with 51 interventions, it announced on Friday.
December 27 and 31 were particularly busy, with helicopter rescue crews carrying out 19 interventions each of the two days. The commitments were mainly due to injured athletes and medical emergencies, according to the press release.
The end-of-year celebrations were not the only ones to be intense: over the entire year 2024, Air Zermatt helicopters carried out almost 2,100 missions, which practically corresponds to the level of the previous year. With more than 1,100 interventions, ambulances were also called upon as often as the previous year.
ats/asch
World
