Destroyed houses, broken power lines and an angry mob in the centre of the village - it was a confusing situation for our advance team when they landed with a Swiss Army helicopter in Epeisses, Switzerland, at around 11 a.m. on Monday afternoon. Since Sunday afternoon, 50 experts from I.S.A.R. Germany have been on the road to help with the Large-scale exercise Achilles in the south of Switzerland to demonstrate their skills and, as a result, to be certified once again as a team of the UN organisation INSARAG.
Following the alert on Sunday and the journey to Payerne military airport, a transport helicopter took off in the morning for the village of Epeisses, where, according to the exercise script, an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale had occurred. On board the helicopter: an advance team with the equipment for a provisional United Nations command centre, two rescue dog teams and ISAR members who are specially trained to assess disaster situations.
After a 25-minute flight, the helicopter landed in the training village near the French border. The 12-strong advance team was greeted there by an angry mob that had been waiting for help for more than a day and reacted to the arrival of the helpers with loud and sometimes aggressive reactions. While the advance team subsequently obtained information from the local authorities about the security situation and the destruction that had already been recorded and carried out initial reconnaissance of the area, the other ISAR members travelled by bus from the military airport to the damaged area.
Once on site, the base camp was first set up in a forest near the training village before other dog teams, a rescue train and medics made their way to Epeisses to help.
Text: Paul-Philipp Braun
Photos: Stefan Sobotta/ Paul-Philipp Braun
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Helicopter flight from Payerne military airport to the Payerne training village.
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At Payerne military airport, the ISAR-Germany advance team was briefed on the assumed earthquake situation.
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Marking is part of the assessment.
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Assessment of the ISAR team in the Epeisses earthquake training village.
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Swiss Army military helicopter in action at the Epeisses training village.
