Falco has a “helper”: he will be based in Fiames

The second helicopter to cope with the increase in interventions in July and August, the experimental service started yesterday

CORTINA. “Falco” has had an assistant since yesterday, who will help implement the mountain rescue service, at least for the summer season. The helicopter rescue of the province expands with a new helicopter which has its base in the helipad in Fiames, in Cortina. A vehicle that will allow, for now on an experimental basis in the months of July and August, to cope with the increasing number of emergency calls, especially in the mountain area and in view of the arrival of tourists. This possible solution had already been widely talked about after last summer, hot from the point of view of accidents in the mountains and the number of requests for help. Often it was necessary to ask for support from helicopters outside the province: now it will no longer be necessary. Eli Friulia’s new aircraft, a cutting-edge model equipped with 5 blades, will be available 12 hours a day and will be used in particular to cover the upper part of the province. In Cortina, in addition to the pilots, there will be a helicopter rescue technician made available by the Alpine Rescue and the medical staff of Dolomiti Emergency. The latter association was the real promoter of this initiative.

“This is a special day”, declared the director general of Ulss 1 Dolomiti, Maria Grazia Carraro, who spoke yesterday in connection with the presentation of the new helicopter, “from today our territory is enriched with a new service that is experimental and which develops in the months in which the data show that the greatest number of interventions are concentrated in the mountains. The project was born from an idea of ​​Dolomiti Emergency and with the support of Alpine Rescue, Creu and the Veneto Region. This service will be monitored and at the end of the process we will have to make an assessment which we will then transmit to the competent bodies. We are committed to managing everything with the particular attention that our territory requires ».

On the other hand, the provincial delegate of Alpine Rescue, Alex Barattin, speaks of a historic day.

«We have been waiting for this implementation of the service for a long time», he commented, «there are many organizations but also many private sponsors to thank together with Dolomiti Emergency. We hope that at the end of the experimental phase it will be understood that this is a fundamental service for the territory. The use of the helicopter obviously exposes personnel to a risk but often less than that of sending teams to intervene on the ground in a severe environment ».

Dr. Paolo Rosi, from the SUEM Regional Coordination, is also enthusiastic about this initiative.

«Dolomiti Emergency was able to organize all this in perfect line with the criteria that were required and integrating the service with the management of the Pieve operations center. In the summer we are often forced to call helicopters from other provinces, now we are able to avoid this and reduce intervention times. It is understood that we must continue to work so that there are fewer and fewer accidents and therefore we must focus strongly on prevention ».

At the presentation of Fiames were also present the health director of Ulss Dolomiti, Maria Cristina De Marco, and the representatives of the newly elected municipal administration of Cortina.

«We are obviously very satisfied to have a base helicopter here in our country», underlined the commissioner Stefano Ghezze, «we feel safer but always aware that the mountains must be respected. We know that there are people ready to help us but at the same time we must understand that by helping us they put their lives at risk ».