Tragedy in Crans-Montana: Air Zermatt deployed in full force
On New Year’s Day, Valais experienced one of the most serious tragedies in its recent history. In the early hours of New Year’s Day, an incident in Crans-Montana claimed around 40 lives and left more than 110 people injured. Air Zermatt was on the scene within minutes and deployed all available resources to provide medical care as quickly as possible and transport those affected to appropriate hospitals.
Air Zermatt was alerted at 01:32. Immediately after receiving the call, a rescue helicopter took off from the Gampel base for Crans-Montana with a crew consisting of a pilot, paramedic and emergency physician. Later, rescue helicopters also departed from the Zermatt and Raron bases to reinforce air-rescue operations on site.
In an initial phase, Air Zermatt transported patients to hospitals in the region. In parallel, depending on the severity of injuries, seriously injured patients were transferred to university hospitals throughout Switzerland.
“Our thoughts are with the victims, their loved ones and everyone affected. Throughout the night and today, we have done everything possible to provide medical assistance as quickly as possible and to coordinate transports, in close cooperation with all partner organisations.” This statement captures the mood among Air Zermatt staff after this day.
Maintaining emergency readiness despite a major incident
During the holiday period, several tens of thousands of guests are staying in Valais. To ensure emergency readiness across the entire canton at all times despite the major incident, Air Zermatt continuously adjusted its deployment plan: helicopters were reconfigured and crews redeployed so that further emergencies in Valais could also be covered without delay.
In addition to medical emergencies and numerous winter-sports accidents, Air Zermatt was called out to a crevasse rescue in the Saas-Fee area. It also supported emergency services in responding to a wildfire in the Aletsch region.
