Helicopter Response at Crans-Montana Disco Fire — January 1, 2026

Crans-Montana, Switzerland — In the early hours of January 1, 2026, a catastrophic fire tore through the Le Constellation bar during New Year’s celebrations, killing around 40 people and injuring more than 115 others. The scale of casualties quickly overwhelmed local ground emergency resources. Local hospitals rapidly reached capacity due to the large number of severely burned patients, necessitating a large-scale aerial evacuation and redistribution of casualties across Switzerland and to specialised treatment centres abroad.

According to official flight data and emergency service reports, nine positively identified rescue helicopters were mobilised in direct support of emergency services at the scene and during subsequent medical transport operations.

Helicopter Operators and Roles

Multiple Swiss air-rescue providers, supported by international assistance, formed an integrated aerial response:

Rega (Swiss Air-Rescue) — Coordinated the majority of helicopter medical evacuation missions and inter-hospital transfers. The following H145 helicopters were identified as operating during the response: HB-TIJ (Rega 18), HB-TIH (Rega 4), HB-TIG (Rega 15), HB-TID (Rega 7), and HB-TIK (Rega 1).

Air-Glaciers — Provided early on-scene response and casualty evacuation with H135 helicopters HB-XOF and later HB-XOE.

Air Zermatt — Responded rapidly with Bell 429 HB-XDA, which was reported to be the third helicopter to land at the scene, transporting injured victims to regional hospitals.

Italian Civil Protection (Airgreen) — Provided additional cross-border medical evacuation support later in the day using AW139 I-RIVU, increasing transport capacity as Swiss resources rotated and redistributed missions.

Operational Summary

Confirmed rescue helicopters involved: 9

Helicopters were used to evacuate casualties to hospitals across Valais and onward to major Swiss cities with specialised burn-treatment facilities.

Additional international helicopter support from Italy helped sustain the operation as the response evolved.

In addition to rotary-wing assets, Rega deployed fixed-wing air-ambulance aircraft, including Bombardier Challenger 650 jets, to transfer critically injured patients from Swiss airfields to specialised burn centres elsewhere in Europe, reflecting both the severity of injuries and the saturation of regional intensive care capacity.