Air Force scrambles ‘complex’ helicopter rescue
Yesterday Lusa was extolling the expertise of an Air Force search and rescue team scrambled by Merlin helicopter to the aid of a Dutch tourist clinging to the side of Portugal’s highest mountain; today Correio da Manhã says the man faces a hefty fine.
The reason is that anyone intending to climb the Azores’ Pico mountain must apply first for authorisation.
“The tourist didn’t have this”, says CM. And to make matters worse, he had not stuck to the official ‘route’ to the summit, and was wearing “inadequate shoes”.
Just failing to have due authorisation risks a fine of €1,000 – but requiring ‘search and rescue’ – particularly such a complex operation as this one – technically adds to the final bill.
Says CM, “regional regulations say he should be paying for the rescue. This means, the Dutchman could end up paying simply for the hours of the helicopter, a bill of around €10,000″.
As previous stories of rescues have explained, the reason for fining people who perform ‘dare-devil stunts’ that go horribly wrong is that they invariably put the lives of others in danger by their actions.
In this incident, the Dutchman was utterly stuck on an escarpment over 2,000 metres high.
Mountain guide Renato Goulart told CM that “without adequate shoes and completely off the official trail, he had come to a stop in an unbelievable situation on the north side (of the mountain), in a crevice at an altitude of 2,240 metres where there was no chance of rescue (by land) due to the very high risk of compromising even further the physical integrity of the tourist and members of any rescue team. The only option was helicopter rescue by a specialised team”.
This extraordinary operation has been filmed and uploaded on the Portuguese Air Force official Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1E9ygJFGKB
Roughly eight hours passed from the moment the tourist himself used his mobile phone to call for help, to the point where he was finally airlifted to safety. The young man was found to be in a state of exhaustion and dehydrated. Once the helicopter delivered him safely to Pico airport, it faced a further two hours’ flight to get back to base on Terceira island.
As an official source for Pico’s ‘Casa da Montanha’ stressed, people climbing the mountain who disrespect rules and regulations are liable for “expenses inherent in rescues effected”.
source material: Correio da Manhã/ Lusa
