Not-for-profit helicopter emergency medical services operator ADAC Luftrettung has re-opened the station it operated on the grounds of the Northwest Hospital in Sanderbusch and restarted rescue operations with its Christoph 26 helicopter. The base had been closed for extensive modernisation and expansion, and was rebuilt in less than a year to meet the latest standards and requirements while Airbus H145 Christoph 26 and its crews continued their work from the JadeWeser airport in Mariensiel.

At a ceremony in the new hangar, ADAC managing director Frédéric Bruder thanked everyone responsible for the successful expansion and conversion of the station.

"As a winch station with 24 hour operation and night vision competence, Sanderbusch is one of our most powerful stations," he says. "Today we are laying the foundation for the sustainable continuation and further expansion of its particularly wide range of applications: Sanderbusch is now the most modern helicopter station of the ADAC air rescue service."

Sven Ambrosy, district administrator of the Friesland district in the state of Lower Saxony, whose Ministry of the Interior is responsible for the air rescue station adds: "ADAC Luftrettung does an excellent job on behalf of the state of Lower Saxony and is a very important partner for our rescue service to care for people in the region. We are pleased that the ADAC air rescue is now based in Sanderbusch as usual and that the new building means it is even more closely linked to the location in the Friesland district. Congratulations on the new modern air rescue station for the Christoph 26 helicopter.”

The planners attached particular importance to the station's visual integration into the region, choosing a calm clinker brick for the facade. With 1,080 sqm on two floors, the new station offers more than twice as much space as before to store medical equipment and special equipment such as night vision devices for rescue operations at dusk or in the dark (part of the night vision imaging system - NVIS). Sanderbusch is one of three ADAC stations that are operational 24/7. Its pilots and crews are specially trained for operations in minimal light conditions and using NVIS technology.

ADAC's air rescue service has operated in the Friesland municipality of Sande since 1983. This makes the home of Christoph 26 one of the oldest stations in the nationwide network managed by the flying Yellow Angels, which operates 37 locations and more than 50 rescue helicopters.

"In retrospect, the stationing of Christoph 26 at the Northwest Hospital in Sanderbusch has proved to be a model for success," says managing director of Friesland Kliniken Dr Werner Wodrich. "This has resulted in cooperation by many participants in coastal health care, which is very much to the benefit of the people."

The Sanderbuscher crews have taken on more than 50,000 missions over the past four decades, 13,61 of them in 2021. In the first half of 2022, Christoph 26 was called out 771 times, a more than 20 per cent increase compared to its 595 missions in the first six months of 2021.