Bernhard Schmid is one of the most experienced pilots in the German air rescue service. The man from Farchant will retire from flying on October 21st and can look back on an unusual life.
This damn weather. Bernhard Schmid walks across the asphalt of the heliport in the northwest of the Munich-Großhadern University Hospital. He circles the red and white helicopter, which is waiting for its mission with the doors open, he keeps looking at his cell phone with the latest weather data, then at the sky, where the clouds are darkening ominously in the southwest towards Starnberg. “It doesn’t look good,” says Schmid. A chin like Kirk Douglas, flashing eyes like Terence Hill and a charisma that promises, despite all the smiles and all the happiness, an iron will. He is the captain of the helicopter D-HXFB, which also has the identification “Christoph München” in radio traffic. Flying during thunderstorms is an absolute no-no, even for this well-equipped intensive care transport helicopter. Flight captain Schmid makes the decision: to fly or not to fly. Slightly annoyed, he takes the red transport truck out of the hangar, guides it under the helicopter and rolls it into the hangar. Half an hour later the thunderstorm arrived.