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04. 01. 10. - 16:00

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04. 01. 10. - 16:00

Rescue helicopters in the air for 244 days last year

By Lisa Chapman

Car club ÖAMTC reported today (Mon) its 16 rescue helicopters had been in the air for 244 days last year.

The club said the helicopters had made an average of 38 flights a day to help 12,965 people.

Club rescue-service manager Reinhard Kraxner said: "The year 2009 has once more shown that ÖAMTC’s rescue flights are inseparable from a modern Austrian health-care system."

He added that 43.4 per cent of rescue flights last year had occurred in response to health problems like heart attacks and strokes, 29.7 per cent had been to rescue victims of accidents at work, school and during leisure-time activities, while 10.8 per cent had been to help people injured in traffic accidents.

A total of 48 pilots, 250 rescue workers and 280 emergency doctors had spent 75,000 hours helping people, Kraxner added.

He said pan-European guidelines for rescue flights that had been in existence since the end of the 1990s had come into effect in Austria as of 1 January.

Among other things, the guidelines allow only specially-licensed helicopters to engage in rescue flights.

They require that all helicopters be equipped with two electronically guided turbines that guarantee a safe landing in case of engine failure. Such turbines were especially important in areas with a high density of buildings, Kraxner said.

He added that the EC 135 helicopters used by the club since 1999 fully complied with the guidelines.

Austrian Times

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