Air-Glaciers

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Air-Glaciers
Eurocopter AS-350B-3 Ecureuil from Air-Glaciers
IATA code :
ICAO code : AGV
Call sign : AIR GLACIERS
Founding: 1965
Seat: Sion , SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland 
Operational bases:

7 (see locations)

Home airport : Sion airport
Company form: Corporation
Management: Bruno Bagnoud
Number of employees: 153 (2010)
Fleet size: 14  helicopters
0 6  planes
Aims:
Website: www.air-glaciers.ch

The Air-Glaciers SA is the second largest helicopter company and charter airline in Switzerland with headquarters in customs . Air-Glaciers operates the emergency number 1415 for rescue flights .

history

In 1963, the Swiss mountain guide Bruno Bagnoud lost a friend after a crash because the summoned helicopter pilot Hermann Geiger could not land due to the technical limitations of his machine. Bagnoud then learns from Geiger that the purchase of a more powerful, turbine-powered helicopter (an Alouette III ) fails because of the purchase price of 1.5 million Swiss francs.

To increase the quality of air rescue, Bagnoud borrows CHF 600,000 from a regional bank and Sud Aviation , manufacturer of the Alouette III, agrees to payment in installments. In August 1965 the first Alouette III with the registration number HB-SCB and a Pilatus Porter were delivered . Air-Glaciers is founded together with Hermann Geiger and Fernand Martignoni.

From 1965 to 1967 the work was limited to a period of about six months in summer and autumn. New areas of application therefore had to be found in countries with a more summery climate.

In autumn 1967 another Alouette III, registration number HB-XCM, and another Pilatus Porter, registration number HB-FCM, were acquired and were used directly as part of a mission for the United Nations in Kayes , Mali . With two Alouette III and two Pilatus Porter machines, Air-Glaciers now had a decent base fleet with which they could respond to the increased demand for services for transport and tourism. Because of its ability to hover and its better maneuverability of the dissolved helicopter , the fixed-wing aircraft in the mountain air from increasing.

In 1969, an Aérospitale maintenance center was set up to enable the general overhaul of the fuselage cells of the Alouette II and III helicopters and the Lama 316B. The Air-Glaciers rescue card was introduced in the early 1970s.

  • 1971 Purchase of the first SA315B Lama HB-XDG
  • 1973 Opening of the base in Lauterbrunnen
  • 1974 crash of the first Alouette III HB-XCB in Italy; Reconstruction in 1987
  • 1979 Opening of the base in Leysin, until 1981; Reopening in 2007
  • 1981 Collombey base opens
  • 1982 Opening of the base in Gampel.
  • 1983 First flight from Sion to Corsica
  • 1984 Opening of the Saanen / Gstaad base.
  • In 1986, Bruno Bagnoud's son, François-Xavier Bagnoud, died in the Paris-Dakar rally. The Maison FXB (François-Xavier Bagnoud) du sauvetage is later named after him.
  • On July 1, 1995, on the initiative of the director of the Air-Glaciers company, Mr Bruno Bagnoud, the FXB du sauvetage house officially opened at Sion Airport. The Maison FXB du sauvetage is not only aimed at lovers of mountain sports, but also at all people in emotional or physical need. Although her primary mission is rescue, she is also committed to accident prevention and the training of experts in Valais tourism. The team at Maison FXB du sauvetage is made up of five specialized rescuers who are trained and patented as mountain guides, canyon guides, piste safety chief and IVR paramedics. Seven additional workers, two doctors, complete the staffing table in times of high workload.
  • 1998 Establishment of an ambulance service in Sierre.
  • 2001 An Ecureuil B3 helicopter, the HB-ZCZ, joins the Air-Glaciers fleet.
  • 2009 Opening of the base in La Chaux-de-Fonds.

Services

Air-Glaciers carries out rescue , transport, sightseeing, training and taxi flights .

Charter flights

(discontinued at the end of 2018)

Locations

The 7 Air-Glaciers helicopter locations

helicopter

fleet

As of September 2018, the Air-Glaciers fleet consists of:

helicopter

Planes

Incidents

  • On February 28, 1999, three people were killed in a helicopter crash between Stalden and Sankt Niklaus in the canton of Valais .
  • On September 26, 2000, eight people died in a collision between two Air-Glaciers helicopters over Beuson in the canton of Valais .
  • On July 14, 2015, a Eurocopter AS 350 Ecureuil B3 had an accident on the way from the Sphinx Observatory (Jungfraujoch) to the Air-Glaciers base in Lauterbrunnen at 2,700 meters on the Guggigletscher. The helicopter was traveling with an underload. The pilot was killed in the accident.
  • On March 24, 2018, the Eurocopter EC135 T1 with the identification HB-ZIR had an accident during a mission on the Great St. Bernhard . The accident occurred about 50 meters from the hospice of the same name , and the cell and the tail boom were separated from each other during the impact. The two crew members were not injured.

See also

Web links

Commons : Air-Glaciers  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Emergency numbers
  2. ↑ book Fifty Years of Air-Glaciers.
  3. ↑ End of charter flights. In: air-glaciers.ch. November 15, 2018, accessed December 3, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Our fleet as of September 1st, 2018. In: air-glaciers.ch. Retrieved September 22, 2018 .
  5. ↑ The worst helicopter accidents in the last 20 years. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung
  6. ↑ This is what it looks like at the crash site. In: Berner Zeitung , accessed on July 15, 2015
  7. ↑ Jörn Fries: Air Glaciers rescue helicopter crashed on the Great St. Bernhard. In: rth.info. March 25, 2018. Retrieved September 22, 2018 .
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