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Rescue operation in Hückeswagen
Photo: Markus Klümper / dpa
The fire brigade and the German Red Cross (DRK) rescued a seriously injured worker from a wind turbine from a height of 95 meters in Hückeswagen in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The 31-year-old technician may have been electrocuted, according to a police spokesman.
The exact background is still being determined: "There is also a lightning strike in the room," said the police spokesman.
Wind and snowfall made the rescue operation difficult.
The emergency services of the DRK and the fire brigade from Cologne succeeded in using ladders to reach the top of the wind turbine and rappelling the seriously injured in a stretcher on the outside of the almost 100-meter-high tower.
After a four-hour mission, the man was flown in a Bundeswehr helicopter to a special clinic in Bochum.
Originally, the seriously injured man was supposed to be freed from the air.
For this purpose a helicopter of the Bundeswehr was requested, which has a special device for recovery.
However, this idea was rejected due to the difficult weather conditions, among other things, according to the DRK.
"Due to the limited space, the rescue operation was very complex," said a spokesman.
The 31-year-old and a colleague had been working on the wind turbine in the early evening on Easter Monday.
The second man reportedly suffered a shock, but otherwise remained uninjured.
bbr / dpa
