For 18 years, the RK-2 emergency doctor helicopter of the ARA air rescue service stationed at the Reutte district hospital in Tyrol has been saving lives. Now it suddenly has to “take off”. Apparently it’s too loud for some residents.
Thomas Jank, Managing Director of the ARA air rescue service that operates the RK-2, is dismayed: “As the operator of the airfield, the Reutte Municipal Association has decided to close the ARA station at the hospital by 2027 at the latest. Supposedly because the noise pollution for the nursing home and some residents was no longer acceptable.” In the first half of 2023 in particular, the deployments fell by 16 percent. Alternative location difficult to find “The community association urged us to find an alternative location in the greater Reutte area as soon as possible do,” says Jank. Of course, this is likely to be an undertaking that is just as difficult as it will cost millions. The airport operator must also indirectly admit this. A few months ago, he commissioned aviation experts to do a site survey – according to Jank, however, the result is still not known. Rescues at night The RK-2, which is equipped with a winch, flies longer in the evening than other emergency helicopters and is allowed to carry out winch rescues at night. The crews have been able to save lives many times. From the Zugspitze, for example, alpinists have repeatedly been rescued from dire need in spectacular actions. It is not only the Ehrwald mountain rescuers who praise the crews of the RK-2 and are enthusiastic about the cooperation. In any case, it is doubtful whether a transfer to another location would alleviate the noise situation at the Ehenbichl hospital, as the following example shows: If the RK-2 starts from an alternative location for a mission on the Zugspitze, it flies with the patient to the Reutte hospital and then has to go back to the new location. In Reutte, there is no less rotation and noise, but there is one more helicopter flight in the Ausserfern.
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