As of: February 29, 2024, 6:00 p.m
By: Roland Lory
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Landed on the Zugspitzplatt: Christoph Murnau near the Maria Heimsuchung chapel.
The Schneefernerhaus can be seen behind the helicopter.
© ADAC Luftrettung /Peter Schellig
The number of rescue flights nationwide fell in 2023 for the first time in years.
However, this trend is hardly noticeable with the Christoph Murnau helicopter.
The proportion of trauma patients is high.
This is due to the many leisure and sports accidents.
The rescue helicopter is also at the forefront when it comes to winch operations.
Murnau
– When Christoph Murnau starts, there is power behind it: the two engines each have 1072 hp.
The rescue helicopter, which is stationed at the Murnau accident clinic and operated by ADAC Luftrettung gGmbH, can fly at a speed of around 220 kilometers per hour.
The range is around 650 kilometers and the tank holds a good 900 liters of fuel.
Four people sit in the Airbus Helicopters helicopter when an operation is scheduled: emergency doctor, pilot, emergency paramedic and winch operator.
Around three times a month, Dr.
Raphael Bender, medical director for Christoph Murnau, is on board as an emergency doctor.
“We had a relatively normal year,” says the anesthesiologist, looking back on 2023. Operations declined across Germany.
“But it almost didn’t affect us.” The ADAC Luftrettung counted 1,232 missions in relation to Christoph Murnau.
That is 44 or 3.4 percent less than in 2022. “I would describe that as normal fluctuation,” says Bender.
With the winch in winter terrain.
In 2023, 182 such missions were counted.
© ADAC Luftrettung/Mihai Paunescu
Winch rescues, on the other hand, have increased significantly: the medical crew members rappelled down to a patient in the impassable terrain of the Bavarian Alps 182 times and, if necessary, hoisted him back on board after emergency medical care.
That was 35 more than last time.
In 2021 there were 207 of these special operations.
According to a press release from ADAC Südbayern, Christoph Murnau is the “nationwide leader in winch operations”.
The winch, which is 90 meters long and has a load capacity of around 250 kilograms, makes it possible to treat and rescue patients much more quickly.
What also sets the Murnau rescue helicopter apart from others: It transports significantly more patients from the scene of the accident to the clinic.
“This is due to the rural structure,” says Bender.
Ground-based transport routes are longer in the countryside.
The rescue service is also “pretty much at the limit” when it comes to vehicles.
Another difference: According to the medical director, the proportion of trauma patients is “over 50 percent”.
Reason: the many leisure and sports accidents.
56 percent of Christoph Murnau's missions are in this sector, including school and traffic accidents.
This is followed by neurological emergencies such as strokes, cerebral hemorrhages and seizures at 16 percent, and cardiovascular diseases at 14 percent.
“Rapid help from the air has often made the difference between life and death in 2023,” emphasizes Frédéric Bruder, Managing Director of ADAC Luftrettung, when presenting the balance sheet.
“The helicopter crews have once again performed exceptionally well.” According to him, the high volume of operations over so many years is only possible through partnership-based cooperation with control centers, clinics, emergency services, the authorities in the state and the municipalities as well as the police and fire brigade.
With 37 stations, ADAC Luftrettung is one of the largest air rescue organizations in Europe.
Most of the locations were in Bavaria again in 2023.
In total, the air rescue helicopters flew 12,998 missions in the Free State last year.
In the previous year there were 13,423 alerts.
Christoph 15 Straubing took off most times in 2020, followed by Christoph 18 Ochsenfurt (1873) and Christoph 1 Munich (1621).