Rega: flying heroes.
| Auteur | Mawson, Emily |
| Fonction | Business: made in switzerland |
It is hardly surprising that Rega pilots are proud of their jets. Affectionately known as 'challies' after aircraft type Challenger CL-604, the red, white and silver planes look like new toys in their hangar at Zurich Airport. "It is rare that all three jets are here," says Karin Horhager of the Swiss air rescue organisation's media centre. "It has been the busiest August in years."
Air-borne experimentation
The most popular brand in Switzerland (according to a 2007 survey by market research company IHA-GfK), Rega completed a record 14,240 missions in 2011--of which 1,052 were repatriation missions. It has a fleet of 17 helicopters alongside its jets. Two are in for repairs at the other end of the hangar--one is sleek like a dragonfly and used for mountain rescues; the other is corpulent and resembles a blue bottle fly and is employed in lowland missions. The helicopter types Agusta Westland Da Vinci and Eurocopter EC 145 respectively are as shiny and modern as their winged companions.
Rega, which is celebrating its sixtieth anniversary this year, has evolved since its founding in the 1950s--an era that marked the beginnings of air rescue. "I was part of the meeting on 27 April 1952," remembers 84-year-old Rega pioneer Walter Odermatt, "when the delegates of the Swiss Rescue Association (SLRG) founded Swiss Air-Rescue [as Rega was then called]." While improvised air rescue operations had taken place before--including the pioneering efforts of Swiss pilots Victor Hug and Pista Hitz, who landed two military planes on the Gauli Glacier in the Bernese Oberland in 1946 to rescue a stranded aircraft's passengers and crew--Rega's founders explored the concept further.
"We were sent to England to train to become parachutists with the Royal Air Force," recalls Odermatt, an experienced alpinist. Although tough and efficient training, the parachuting--more suited to use in the military--was not ideal for Swiss Air-Rescue's purposes and did not catch on. Subsequently, trial rescues with aircraft on retractable metal skis took place and, on 25 December 1952, Head of Swiss Air-Rescue Dr Rudolf Bucher announced that the organisation's helicopters were ready for action.
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Flying dogs
"My very first mission still sticks in my memory," says Odermatt. "In January 1954, several avalanches hit three villages in the Austrian region of Vorarlberg and killed more than 100 people. Over several days, a Swiss rescue troop was stationed there in...
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