Bavarian Police Helicopter Section & Mountain Rescue Service Operational with RECCO SAR Helicopter Detector

Two RECCO SAR helicopter detectors are placed at the mountain rescue stations in Sonthofen and Bad Reichenhall. 20 mountain rescuers and the helicopter crews have been trained in October 2021 with the detectors. The detectors will be used to search for missing people in the outdoors year-round.

“The safety of the citizens is very important to us. With the introduction of the new detectors, in cooperation with the Bavarian Mountain Rescue Service, we can take another big step forward by usefully expanding our tool kit for searching for missing people,“ says Peter Kreuzer, Head of Flight Operations at the Bavarian Police Helicopter Squadron.

The RECCO SAR Helicopter Detector can quickly search large areas. The helicopter searches from a height of 100 meters covering an area approximately 100 meters wide. Searching at speeds up to 100 km/h, rescuers can cover a 1 km2 within 6 minutes. Besides shortening search time, the helicopter-based detector can reduce the time and the exposure to risk for rescue workers during search missions.

“Germany is one of the most important outdoor markets worldwide, with regards to the amount of people recreating in the area and the amount of searches for missing or injured people every year. To have two RECCO SAR helicopter detectors in the country used by the police and mountain rescue service is crucial for us, considering our objective to make the search process quicker and safer for the rescue teams in the world,” says Fredrik Steinwall, CEO at RECCO.

Many Search & Rescue teams in Germany are equipped with handheld RECCO detectors for avalanche rescue, but this is the first time the RECCO SAR Helicopter Detector system is operational in the country.

RECCO rescue reflectors are commonly found in outdoor clothing and equipment, such as jackets, pants, backpacks, hiking shoes and ski helmets. Other applications include climbing harnesses, transceivers and biking helmets.

Currently there are 25 RECCO SAR Helicopter Detectors globally, with 7 in North America and 16 units deployed across Europe. The latest deployments include Teton County Search and Rescue (USA), Alpine Helicopters (CAN) and a RECCO SAR helicopter detector based out of Abruzzo operated by Italy’s CNSAS.