Christoph 1 – German Air Ambulance Service

This is not a VIP shuttle service to conveniently reach the nearby beer garden. Instead this particular machine is part of a nation wide (and border crossing) system that provides medical emergency treatment aiming at a 15 min response time to reach any location in Germany. So just in case something really bad happens dial 112 and the rescue coordination center will send one of these if needed.

This time the emergency physician decided that it wasn't neccessary to fly the casualty to the hospital (an ambulance van had already arrived to pick up the non-acute patient), so the flight crew was able to relax for a while and chat with curious people like me.

The helicopter shows some information about which organisations and public authorities finance and run such a service: the huge brand on the side, partly hidden by the sliding door, is the name of a huge German automobile club which apparently also runs a large fleet of rescue helicopters. In fact, a great deal of the costs is spent by the health insurance system and the federal state.
The two coats of arms depicting both the City and the District of Munich partner as Rettungszweckverband München to provide manpower as well as infrastructure. Also note the stars of the European Union on the tail fin.

The crane on the side can be used if the situation doesn't allow for a safe landing and requires some techniques that need to be trained at regular intervals.

Christoph 1 is the radio call sign of this Eurocopter BK 117-B2 helicopter, which is based at one of Munich's major hospitals. Historically this well organized system started with the former "Christoph 1", a Bo 105, in 1970. Panotwin Markus has a panorama of such an earlier model that is on display at Munich Airport.

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Europe / Germany

Lat: 48° 4' 6.42" N
Long: 11° 32' 22.27" E

Elevation: 578 m (1896 ft)

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: High. Pinpoints the exact spot.

• Nikon D300 / Walimex f3.5 8mm (1/100 sec @ f5.6)

• Novoflex panoramic head / monopod / handheld

• Hugin 2012.0.0 / Photoshop CS6

• my bike