Since August 9, two Austrian Armed Forces helicopters, an S-70 Black Hawk and an Agusta Bell-212 transport helicopter, have been on disaster relief missions in Slovenia. In close coordination with the crisis coordination team of the Slovenian armed forces, they are flying in the Dravograd-Mežica-Črna na Koroškem region, which was particularly hard hit by the storm.
In a total of 99 take-offs and landings to date, the two helicopters have transported local specialists to rebuild the power grid and urgently needed goods such as food, medicines, drinking water, shovels and tools to cut-off villages. The Black Hawk transport helicopter also flew two sanitary containers, each weighing around three tons, to Mežica. In total, the two Armed Forces helicopters have so far transported 84 people and around 20,500 kilograms of load. https://militaeraktuell.at/lockheed-mit-f-35-auch-in-rumaenien-erfolgreich/ “I would like to thank all the emergency services, especially our soldiers, who are helping the population in Carinthia and Styria shoulder to shoulder every day and have been deployed in Slovenia since Wednesday. Our Armed Forces do an enormous amount and are there for the Austrians around the clock when they are needed. Austria can be proud of the achievements of its armed forces,” says Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner. The helicopter crews pick up the relief supplies south of Slovenj Gradec before flying them to the locations in the disaster area that have been determined by the Slovenian crisis management team
The federal army assistance forces are also still deployed in Austria:
- In Styria, 70 soldiers are on an assistance mission. They are stabilizing landslides in Bad Gleichenberg and Gnas, working on a windfall in Pirching am Taubenberg and helping to clear rubble, debris and mud in the Feldbach district.
- In Carinthia, 120 soldiers from Pioneer Battalion 1 from Villach and the construction/pioneer platoon of the Carinthian military command are also continuing to assist in clearing damaged areas. A 50-ton ferry was built between Rottenstein (municipality of Ebental) and Guntschach near Glainach (see picture), which has since been put into operation. In addition, an Agusta Bell 212 helicopter is still available for reconnaissance and transport flights. The Black Hawk, on the other hand, has ended its mission in Carinthia.
