After the emergency mountain rescue of 99 schoolchildren in Austria: who pays for the complex campaign?
Created: 06/09/2022, 18:29
By: Lukas Einkammerer
A group of students and teachers have to be rescued on a mountain excursion in Austria.
It has not yet been decided who will bear the costs.
Mittelberg/Maxdorf – Actually, it should have been such a beautiful day.
A group of students from Ludwigshafen and their teachers set off on a hike in the Schöntal valley in Austria on Tuesday afternoon to enjoy the beautiful mountain landscape under blue skies.
However, the perfect school trip soon turns into a real nightmare.
Because the planned route turns out to be a dangerous route, which is actually only suitable for professionals, and the rainy weather of the previous days makes the dizzying passages a real challenge - which the 99 students and eight teachers are ultimately not up to.
Mountain rescue of students and teachers in Austria: Complex rescue maneuver
Although the risky route, some of which leads over the not very wide Heuberggrat, is actually no longer recommended, one teacher decided to take the students along this path to the nearby Mittelberg.
The hiking tip originally came from Google, where the route was incorrectly referred to as the "after-work tour".
What sounded like a leisurely path through the trees turned out to be highly dangerous terrain, which you should actually only tackle with the right footwear and a good deal of Alpine experience.
To make matters worse, the floors were wet due to the rainy weather of the past few days and were therefore a lot less safe.
When two students slipped trying to turn back, the adult attendants called 911.
The group was finally brought to safety with the help of a helicopter and returned to their accommodation.
Fiasco on a hiking tour in Austria: 99 students and eight teachers from Germany in mountain trouble.
© State Police Headquarters Vorarlberg/APA/dpa
Mountain rescue of students and teachers in Austria: the cost of the rescue operation has not yet been determined
Although the students and teachers were lucky in the misfortune, the question of the cost of the emergency rescue remains.
Such a complex maneuver, in which several helicopters had to be used, is likely to prove quite expensive.
As a spokesman for the Vorarlberg police said, according to the dpa, the cost of the helicopter mission alone should amount to several thousand euros - and that's without including the other components of the lengthy rescue operation.
However, it is not yet clear who will ultimately have to pay the dizzying sum.
As the headmaster of the Maxdorfer Gymnasium, Martin Storck, reported to the German Press Agency, the investigations should continue.
A final invoice total is not yet available.
"After receipt of such an invoice, the reason and amount will be checked," confirms the Supervisory and Service Directorate (ADD) in Trier to the dpa.
No matter how much the emergency mountain rescue will cost in the end - at least everyone survived the alpine fright well.
On Friday, the students return from their class trip and will surely have a lot to tell.
One can only keep one's fingers crossed that the unplanned horror trip will soon be forgotten.
(le)