Helicopter Rescuer in the Himalayas| Official Documentary Film

Helicopter Rescuer in the Himalayas
When the individual rises to the challenge
The film
When Air Zermatt pilot Gerold Biner and rescue specialist Bruno Jelk landed in Kathmandu in the spring of 2010, they had no idea what they were about to experience. Their aim was to set up a rescue station in the Himalayas along with a team from the Nepalese helicopter company Fishtail Air. It was to be an adventure at the very limits of the possible. Up to that point, nobody had dared to conduct rescue missions at altitudes of up to 7,000 meters. The risks were thought too great, as only a small number of helicopters are certified to fly so high. The winds and the altitude also make sorties like this unpredictable. The helicopter is unable to hover in the thin air, and the pilots and rescue team must use oxygen to avoid unconsciousness and potential death. Despite this, the Swiss-Nepalese alliance was undeterred, even when their goal was overshadowed by a tragic crash that called everything into question.

For two years, a DOK production team had followed the set-up of the rescue station amid the world's highest mountains, documenting each step of the rescue team's work in Nepal and in Switzerland in Zermatt.

The Film also features personal interviews with the three main figures Gerold Biner, of Air Zermatt, Bruno Jelk, Head of Security and Rescue in Zermatt, and Siddharta Gurung, a pilot in Nepal, as they remember the events of the past few years. They talk about how they have experienced the station set-up phase, reflect once again on the tragic deaths of their colleagues, and consider the sense – and the dangers – of helicopter rescue in the Himalayas. The film also shows how the idea of a rescue station in the region has developed, and the challenges that the Zermatt-Nepal team faces today.

It is an impressive contemporary account of one of the last adventures in aviation, told in a typically matter-of-way by those who were there.

Production

A DOK camera crew and journalists covered this pioneering project for two years, along with a team from Nepal, for whom it was just as much an adventure and a step into the unknown. They too had to be equipped with extra oxygen, as they were filming between ice falls and crevasses, and in remote valleys. Their courage produced unique, never-seen-before pictures of the Himalayan mountain panorama at up to 7,000 meters.
The rescue helicopters were fitted with additional cameras which also recorded all radio communications. The cameras were also there when the rescue specialists conducted a training exercise at over 6,000 meters, in glacier crevasses when they had to
recover a body from Camp 2 on Everest, or flew on the long line in front of the world's highest mountain. Every sortie was accompanied by a parallel helicopter.
Furthermore, a Cineflex camera was used exclusively and for the first time ever in production on the Himalayas. It was fixed directly on to the helicopter and controlled from a dedicated keyboard in the cockpit. Its breathtaking images allow the audience to experience the world of these 8,000-metre peaks as if they were in the helicopter alongside the pilot.
This proximity provides viewers with an intimate insight into real stories and real-life rescue missions against a backdrop of the highest mountains in the Himalayas – and into the lives of people who rose to the challenge in pursuit of their dream.

Produced and Directed by:
Frank Senn
Hari Thapa
Camera:
Sarah Senn-Hauser
Krisna Om Thapa
Video Journalist:
Octto C. Honegger
Marc Gieriet
Edited by:
Angelo Prize –apRi production
Lawa Pyakurel (Nepali Version)
Music:
Martin Villiger
Executive Production:
SRF
Marius Born
Servus TV
Frank Aydt

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