Safety in Alpine Helicopter Rescue Operations—Minimal Requirements of Alpine Skills for Rescue Personnel
Alpine helicopter rescue operations involve a combination of logistical, technical, and medical skills. The crew members are exposed to challenging terrain and weather conditions, increasing the difficulty of the rescue and the risks imparted to both the crew and the patient. There are currently no guidelines outlining the minimal requirements for technical alpine climbing skills of crew members to ensure a safely executed operation. The investigators reviewed rescue operations in the central European Alps over a 1-year period to define the technical difficulties of the terrain encountered. The outcome of the study was a recommended set of alpine skills for crew members based on the range of terrain difficulty. Previous theories of risk management and risk acceptance suggest a crew member should have sufficient alpine experience and training for 90% of all operations.
The following information was collected for the terrain for each rescue operation: the altitude at the site of operation, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) terrain index, and the Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme (UIAA) climbing scale. The NACA terrain index assesses terrain difficulty whereas the UIAA scale rates the difficulty of rock or ice climbing. Of the 452 rescue operations included in the study, alpine skills were required in at least 30% of the operations. Additionally, 6.0% of the terrain was rated UIAA grade III, 2.4% UIAA grade IV or above, and 1.5% occurred on ice faces steeper than 50 degrees. To safely manage 90% of the rescue operations, the researchers concluded that all crew members, except the pilot, should be competent at climbing rock terrain of UIAA scale grade IV (corresponding to 5.5/5.6 rating on the Yosemite Decimal Scale) and ice climbing at 50-degree steepness using appropriate rescue, rope, and belaying skills. That includes a safety margin to account for adverse conditions encountered. Limitations of this study include subjective analysis of terrain difficulty and an inability to extrapolate beyond the conditions of the Central Alps.
(Ann Occup Hyg. 2013). T Küpper, D Hillebrandt, J Steffgen, V Schöffl.
Prepared by Pearlly Ng, MD, University of Utah Wilderness Medicine Fellow, Salt Lake City, UT, USA