Wiener Städtische Versicherung found that the number of leisure, sports and household accidents has increased significantly since the beginning of the corona crisis. Most recently, around 780.000 accidents were recorded each year. The rescue costs by helicopter have risen at the same time.

Mountaineering and hiking are becoming more and more popular, which has led to increasing numbers of accidents on the mountain and in the field, especially during the corona pandemic: Accidents caused by increased activities on the mountain and in the alpine area have more than 2020 missions in 8.000 alone, according to the Austrian Mountain Rescue Service ( on average 22 per day) and even ended fatally for 261 people.

If an accident is very serious or happens in inaccessible terrain, a helicopter rescue is often unavoidable. And the costs for this have risen in recent years: While the average costs per rescue at Wiener Städtische were around 2018 euros in 3.000, they were 3.290 euros in the previous year, and this year an operation costs around 3.900 euros on average.

Depending on the duration of use, these costs can be significantly more than double. “Many hikers and bikers are not aware that without private accident insurance they will have to pay for the costs of a helicopter rescue themselves. An accident not only has health consequences, it is also often associated with major financial repercussions, ”says Doris Wendler, director of Wiener Städtische Versicherung.