The Lords of the Air

The Lords of the Air Raffael Kostner, dedicated mountain rescuer, has covered the peaks and walls of every mountain in South Tyrol on rescue missions. The same goes for his two brothers Marcus and Gabriel, two experienced pilots who offer their services to ‘Aiut Alpin Dolomites’ together with Raffael. But the story doesn’t end there.

I It’s no easy task to get a photo of the three brothers together. They’re far too busy for such nonsense. For the three brothers Raffael, Marcus and Gabriel, there are more important things to do.

And right on cue, in comes the next emergency call over the radio: An elderly holidaymaker has run into difficulty on the Santner Pass Via Ferrata.

He slipped on the wet rocks and took a tumble of a few metres. Raffael and Marcus hop up into the crimson-red helicopter ready to rise to the occasion with the other men from the Tires Mountain Rescue team. Paolo, an anaesthetist from Milan and one of the 28 mountain rescue doctors at ‘Aiut Alpin Dolomites’ nips under the circling rotor blades and into the H135 T3 along with them.

Text: Elisabeth Augustin Photo: Helmuth Rier

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At the ‘Aiut Alpin Dolomites’ heliport in Pontives at the entrance to the Gardena Valley it’s all systems go, the whole day long: as well as the moun-

tain rescue helicopter, the Elikos GmbH helicopter is also stationed here. And although the two are not connected, they are nevertheless closely linked, and not just in terms of logistics. Marcus and Gabriel Kostner are helicopter pilots and as such, fly on regular rescue missions for ‘Aiut Alpin Dolomites’. They also founded Elikos GmbH helicopter services in 1998, and together with their nephews Manuel and Daniel, offer a number of services ranging from supplying the mountain huts of the Dolomites with foodstuffs to tour flights over the Dolomites and aerial footage for commercials.

Flying is in the Kostner brothers’ DNA. Their grandfather, the legendary Leo Demetz, was not only an engineer and a cable car constructor but also earned himself great respect and recognition as the first pilot from the Gardena Valley. His »

Mountain rescuers in action

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Ready for the next mission

son, one of the Kostners’ uncles, was a pilot in the Second World War. And now it’s some of the 3rd and 4th generation cousins who take fearlessly to the air. Raffael, the oldest of the Kostner brothers (there were 8 brothers and sisters in all at the Stlejuc farm in Ortisei) is almost the exception. He has never been interested in getting his pilot’s licence.

In the helicopter, the experienced mountaineer is the winchman.

One could write an entire book about ‘Aiut Alpin Dolomites’. Raffael Kostner was, and remains to this day, the driving force behind the organisation. As a dedicated mountain rescuer he realised early on in life that in many cases, emergency rescues could only be carried out by air. When he looks back on the first mountain rescue operation carried out by helicopter in the mid-1980s, Raffael says that it was “practically a wonder of the world!” This heralded the third era in recovery of the dead or injured in the mountains. Ever since Alpine mountaineering first became common practice in the 19th century, mountain rescuers tackled rescue missions on foot, and continued to do so right up until the times when military helicopters came into use. Head of the famed ‘Catores’ Gardena Mountain Rescue Association, Raffael Kostner had travelled widely, and was certain that South Tyrol needed a professional air rescue service. And so in the 1970s, he began to work with the armed forces to rescue injured people from the mountains by helicopter.

“In 1985, we lifted our first body from the Spallone del Sassolungo by helicopter,” he recalls. That was when Raffael began a lobbying campaign, primarily aimed towards the political decision makers in Bolzano, and in 1986, the White Cross local rescue organisation was supplied with its own helicopter for the first time.

The South Tyrol Mountain Rescue Association (BRD) and the national Mountain and Cave Rescue Association (CNSAS) section of the Italian Alpine Mountaineering Club (Club Alpino Italiano) were of the mind, however, that mountain rescue services required particularly agile helicopters and specially trained rescuers. Experience showed that a specialist and efficient helicopter mountain rescue service could only be created through an

The passion for flying can be seen in every corner of the Elikos base.

extended area of operation and the additional involvement of the rescue teams from the neighbouring valleys. In order to get around safely on the rocky turrets and faces of the Dolomites, it was also fundamental that they choose the most suitable aircraft. After a number of discussions with the heads of the mountain rescue services in the Ladin valleys, the founding act of the ‘Union Aiut Alpin Dolomites’ was signed, and Raffael Kostner was appointed technical director.

Every mission is teamwork. Raffael Kostner, who set up the emergency switchboard in the summer and winter season at his Sanon Hut on the Alpe di Siusi, which he runs together with his family, had already established a helicopter base in 1987. This location was particularly advantageous for rescue missions in the Dolomites. Raffael equipped the base and, with the help of Dr. Michele Nardin, set up a medical depot, an area for rescue equipment and a fuel supply station. The team were fed in Raffael’s guest house, which was also regularly used for accommodation. Through the aforementioned founding of the ‘Alpine Dolomite Rescue’ in 1990, Kostner’s works took on an official nature, legitimised primarily through the responsibilities assigned to him by the nine mountain rescue teams in the area at that time. Today there are 17 teams, good sponsorship and around 3,000 supporting members behind ‘Aiut Alpin Dolomites’. Emergency calls are taken by the regional South Tyrol emergency services switchboard, who coordinate air rescue services with their helicopters, Pelikan 1 and Pelikan 2 as well as ‘Aiut Alpin Dolomites’. »

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The helicopters and team head out to rescue people in the mountains several times a day.

At ‘Aiut Alpin Dolomites’, which operates around 9 months a year during the climbing season, there is always a pilot, a winchman, a doctor, a mountain rescuer from one of the various teams, and in winter, often an avalanche dog and leader, on board. “Everybody has to give their all when the time comes,” explains Raffael. “A mission is teamwork. And making the right decision quickly is always fundamental.” To this end, crew management is fundamental, as Moritz Peristi, who has been at Raffael’s side since the outset, cannot but confirm.

Twelve percent of missions have to be carried out by winch or hoist, as it is impossible for the helicopter to land. In these situations, it’s a case of

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all hands on deck. And there’s always a risk, both in the flying and in the working. Mountain rescue missions have to go ahead, whatever the weather and however windy it may be.

“My motivation has always come from my love of mountain rescue,” says Raffael, “and the need to improve the service.” It is an enormous satisfaction to be able to offer help on the mountains in the case of accident and to help somebody out of an emergency situation. “The saddest thing is to have to recover mountain climbing colleagues who have died in an accident, or to have to tell parents that their son or daughter will never come home again.”

“We all work for ‘Aiut Alpin Dolomites’ on a voluntary basis,” Raffael emphasises. He has been in service every Sunday for the last thirty years, while his wife Magdalena and, nowadays, his children, tend to the guests at the Sanon Hut alone. In the past, Raffael was able to help out between one emergency call and the next, but since the helicopter base was relocated from the Sanon Hut to the more up-to-date building in Pontives in Ortisei, Val Gardena in 2003, Raffael is rarely to be found in his own hut on the Alpe di Siusi. He sounds somewhat wistful when he speaks of it, but Raffael is a professional to the core, and has high expectations of himself and his colleagues. The base, with operations centre, hangar, office and crew room, apartments for night rescue missions, meet the needs of the times and the requirements of the authorities.

Raffael’s next goal is to extend winter flying hours.

“We’re 20 years behind Switzerland,” he says. If Raffael has anything to do with it, night-time rescues with night-vision equipment should be possible from Christmas 2016. The base in Pontives with its rooftop helipad is, in any case, prepared for

the eventuality. Raffael would also like to invest in training and build up a team of young volunteers for the future.

On a mountain rescue mission, the experience of the pilot is crucial, and in the early days of ‘Aiut Alpin’, it was no easy task to find suitable operations personnel. Raffael’s brothers Marcus and Gabriel were both enthusiastic hang-gliders and were quickly infected by their brother’s helicopter bug. Marcus, known to everybody as Marco, threw in the towel as a mechanic, trained as a pilot and spent the following three years flying fire-fighting aircraft in Sardinia and Campania. He also gained valuable experience on transportation aircraft in the Aosta Valley before finding his dream job with ‘Aiut Alpin Dolomites’. Gabriel, a trained sculptor, got his pilot’s licence through a special EU project.

Since 1998 and 1999 respectively, Marcus and Gabriel have clocked up around 9,000 flying hours each.

While mountain rescuer and winchman Raffael holds that “Flying is… of enormous assistance to mountain rescue services,” Marcus says, “Flying »

Three brothers - one team: Gabriel, Raffael and Marcus Kostner (from left to right)

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is… my dream job,” and Gabriel tells us that “Flying is … absolutely wonderful. But flying over the Dolomites is always the most wonderful.” And it also offers the brothers numerous opportunities.

With their helicopter service ‘Elikos’, they have significant responsibilities: They frequently work

equipment. The Lords of the Air have also piloted prominent guests: Michael Schumacher, Prince Albert of Monaco, Bernie Ecclestone and many more, as can be seen on the enormous photo gallery in the hangar. Marco has even been the stuntman for Terence Hill in the much loved Italian TV show

for South Tyrol civil protection, and are tasked with fire control and with avalanche blasting and the construction of power transmission facilities.

Other important tasks include the maintenance of walking paths, precision assembly and transportation for the renovation or reconstruction of mountain huts. With their many air-freight trips, Marcus und Gabriel are used to working with long cables.

This experience is also of great benefit to them on a rescue mission when they are called upon to pinpoint the location of an accident victim amongst the rocks.

Un passo dal cielo (One Step from the Skies), “even though it was by pure chance,” he grins.

Swift and skilled: Aiut Alpin Dolomites

When ‘Elikos’ is called into service for advertising purposes, the rotor blades spin through a somewhat more sophisticated air. For breathtaking tour trips over the Dolomites, Marcus and Gabriel and their two nephews Manuel and Daniel, pilots themselves, are always ready and willing. The big car brands are on their reference list, as are chocolate producers and manufacturers of technical

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When Raffael Kostner was awarded the distinction of Ufficiale dell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana (Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic) by President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella in the Quirinal Palace in Rome in October 2015 it was a tremendous moment for him.

The reason given for the award was that Raffael is “one of the best-known and esteemed people in the world of mountain rescue services on an international level” and “Kostner‘s dedication and selflessness in rescuing people in the mountains is well known by all mountaineers, both in Italy and abroad.” Raffael was delighted to accept the honour, in the name of all those who carry out rescue missions in the mountains each and every day, for his family who have always supported him and for his brothers Marcus and Gabriel. “Every mission is teamwork.” «