With 40,738 missions in total, the fleet of the DRF Group made an important contribution to emergency medical care last year. The team reached the high level of the previous year with an average of 111 alarms per day. The emergency crews were frequently called to provide medical care for severe heart issues such as heart attacks, or neurological incidents. In addition, patients involved in accidents also needed the immediate assistance of crews, who are able to reach rescue sites within a radius of 60 kilometres within 15 minutes of flight. Most of the accident victims treated were injured in traffic accidents or falls.

“Our credo is to continually improve our work for the benefit of our patients. That is why we pushed ahead with our fleet expansion last year: in addition to three ultra-modern helicopters of the H135 and H145 types, we also put a new Lear 35A ambulance jet into operation,” says Dr Krystian Pracz, chairman of the executive board at DRF Luftrettung. “Many of our HEMS bases will celebrate anniversaries next year, which also shows that we have enjoyed great trust at many locations for years and have become an indispensable element of fast emergency care, both locally and nationwide.”

At night, the DRF Group is an important building block in the rescue system as well, providing 24/7 life-saving operations at 13 of its HEMS bases. This makes it a European leader when it comes to night-time air rescue operations, with the most flying hours in the dark. Last year, a total of 22 per cent of the deployments at these HEMS bases took place during the night hours.