Helicopter rescue

Faster rescue operations in a hostile environment, fast hospitalization in every territory. The helicopter is one of the best allies of the Alpine Rescue. A bond that was born long ago, when in the ’60s the first mountain rescuers groups began to collaborate with the flight departments of the Army and Air Force developing over time unique skills, which make the CNSAS helicopter rescue Technicians indispensable figures of the modern health system.

Today the CNSAS works in close relationship with the 118 actors, bringing with specially prepared and equipped sanitary helicopters – acting like real hospitals – rescue in mountain environments and in all those situations where the helicopter is the winning choice for aid operations to population and mountain users.

The Rescue Helicopter Technician of Soccorso Alpino is responsible for the safety on the ground of the health team, making medical interventions possible.

In accordance with Law n ° 74/2001, the Technician is a specialized technical-professional figure. Only after the courses have been held and the relative patents of “Operatore di Soccorso Alpino – OSA” or Alpine Rescue Operator and “Tecnico di Soccorso Alpino – TeSA” or Alpine Rescue Technician are obtained, the access to a series of selective tests is permitted; these tests, once passed, allow for access to the course for Tecnico di Elisoccorso (TE) or rescue helicopter technician, at the end of which the candidates are subjected to further examination. Candidates who also pass this last verification phase obtain the qualification of helicopter rescue technician. This qualification is subject to periodic maintenance by the Scuola Nazionale Tecnici (SNATE), ‘National Technical School’, of the CNSAS.

The CNSAS TEs intervene throughout the country in numerous interventions a day, with a service that has become irreplaceable not only for mountain climbers and mountain tourists, but also for all those populations of high-altitude countries, where ambulances and sanitary facilities are not able to ensure capillarity in the territory and reduced rescue times.