emergencies
ADAC rescue helicopters fly more than 52,000 missions
The ADAC rescue and intensive care transport helicopters completed many missions. Photo: Martin Schutt/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Accidents and the flood catastrophe have given the rescue helicopters of the ADAC numerous rescue operations – especially in the flood areas in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate.
The ADAC rescue helicopters took off on exactly 52,234 emergency missions last year. That was around 500 more flights than in the first Corona year 2020, as the car club in Munich announced.
For more than 60 percent of their missions, the yellow helicopters were alerted after serious accidents and because of heart attacks or heart problems. As in the previous year, most operations were in Bavaria with 12,179.
The flood disaster of the summer of 2021 is also reflected in the deployment figures. In July and August, ADAC air rescue carried out more than 200 rescue missions in the flood areas in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate. Alone 111 people trapped by the floods were pulled up in the manner of high mountain operations with cable winches and rescued from the water masses.
ADAC Luftrettung and its subsidiaries employ a total of around 1,300 people – including around 170 pilots, around 600 emergency doctors and 250 paramedics.