Growing numbers of foreign visitors and unusually bad weather in 2015 caused growing strain on the Icelandic Search and Rescue Units ICE-SAR, the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service reports. Search and Rescue teams saw a 26% in increase in the number of missions in 2015, compared to the year before.
Read more: The Icelandic Coast Guard‘s helicopter rescue team conducted a record number of 214 missions in 2015
According to RÚV the primary reason for the high number of missions last year was the frequency of heavy storms in the first months of the year. The number of missions the teams were called on was well above average during every month in 2015, with the exception of October and November.
Read more: 2015 was the coldest year of this century in Iceland
Smári Sigurðsson, the chairman of Landsbjörg, the federation of rescue teams told the RÚV that ICE-SAR is looking for ways to reduce the number of rescue missions the teams are called on. He argued that reducing the number of unnecessary calls was a particularly pressing task, particularly in areas where the units are smaller, but the number of travellers are large.
Growing numbers of foreign visitors and unusually bad weather in 2015 caused growing strain on the Icelandic Search and Rescue Units ICE-SAR, the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service reports. Search and Rescue teams saw a 26% in increase in the number of missions in 2015, compared to the year before.
Read more: The Icelandic Coast Guard‘s helicopter rescue team conducted a record number of 214 missions in 2015
According to RÚV the primary reason for the high number of missions last year was the frequency of heavy storms in the first months of the year. The number of missions the teams were called on was well above average during every month in 2015, with the exception of October and November.
Read more: 2015 was the coldest year of this century in Iceland
Smári Sigurðsson, the chairman of Landsbjörg, the federation of rescue teams told the RÚV that ICE-SAR is looking for ways to reduce the number of rescue missions the teams are called on. He argued that reducing the number of unnecessary calls was a particularly pressing task, particularly in areas where the units are smaller, but the number of travellers are large.
