Cable car evacuation by Air Zermatt rescuers
Temperatures of over 30 degrees and a long weekend attracted numerous people to the mountains. Accordingly, Air Zermatt had its hands full from Corpus Christi until Sunday evening. In total, the rescue crews were called out on 29 missions. Saturday was the most intensive day with 15 rescues and the evacuation of the St. Niklaus-Jungen cable car.
On Saturday afternoon, the Air Zermatt operations center received an alert that the aerial cableway from St. Niklaus to Jungen had come to a standstill following an emergency stop. During a reconnaissance flight with an Air Zermatt helicopter, the technicians who were called out discovered that the cable had snapped. As a result, the gondola could no longer operate. In cooperation with a rescue specialist, an Air Zermatt crew evacuated seven passengers from the two cabins and flew them to an assembly point on Alpe Jungen. Finally, the passengers were flown from Jungen to St. Niklaus.
On Saturday evening, an Air Zermatt crew went out on a night mission. A woman had fallen on the Zinalrothorn, had to be rescued by a rescue specialist on the mountain and was flown to the hospital in Visp. The woman suffered such severe injuries that she had to be transferred to the Inselspital in Bern later that night by another Air Zermatt helicopter.
In addition, Air Zermatt was called to a crevasse rescue on the Weissmies at noon on Sunday, where two alpinists fell into a crevasse. The two climbers were able to climb out of the crevasse on their own. Air Zermatt flew them back to the valley unharmed.
In addition to the numerous mountain accidents, Air Zermatt was called out on Sunday afternoon by the cantonal rescue organization KWRO (144) to a traffic accident in Ulrichen. In the accident, a cyclist and a motorcyclist collided. Both persons were flown to the hospital in Visp.
The heli-crew at the reconnaissance flight
Rescue specialist in action
