page_title: Hermann Geiger
hierarchical_section_title: Hermann Geiger
caption_attribution_description: English: Hermann Geiger 1958 freeing most likely an ibex in the mountains. In the background a Bell 47J can be seen. Picture likely taken in the Engadin area, as there is a related image concerning the airfield of Samedan. Helicopter HB-XAU (s/n: 1426) came to Switzerland in 1957 and was a gift to the Swiss Air Ambulance (then Schweizerische Lebensrettungsgesellschaft) from Coop Basel, a Swiss retail company, on 14th of March 1957. It flew with the Swiss Air Ambulance until July 1965, when it went to AECS Wallis. From 1968 it flew with Heliswiss and crashed into a fjord at Fiskenaess/Greenland on June 11th, 1971.
context_page_description: Hermann Geiger was a Swiss aviator and search and rescue pilot whose heroic actions gave him national hero status in Switzerland. Known as "The Glacier Pilot," he pioneered the art of landing his Piper PA-18 on glaciers in the Swiss Alps like no other. In over 600 rescue missions, he managed to land his specially modified aircraft under extreme conditions on snow-covered glaciers. He often had to carry the wounded bodies by himself in subzero temperatures and blizzard conditions to get them safely aboard his plane. Geiger once said "To save lives, you must risk your own." He died from injuries suffered in a fatal collision with a glider at the age of 52. In aviation history, Geiger is the first man to successfully land on a glacier and one of the first mountain rescuers.
context_section_description: Hermann Geiger (27 October 1914 - 26 August 1966) was a Swiss aviator and search and rescue pilot whose heroic actions gave him national hero status in Switzerland. Known as "The Glacier Pilot," he pioneered the art of landing his Piper PA-18 on glaciers in the Swiss Alps like no other. In over 600 rescue missions, he managed to land his specially modified aircraft under extreme conditions on snow-covered glaciers. He often had to carry the wounded bodies by himself in subzero temperatures and blizzard conditions to get them safely aboard his plane. Geiger once said "To save lives, you must risk your own."  He died from injuries suffered in a fatal collision with a glider at the age of 52. In aviation history, Geiger is the first man to successfully land on a glacier and one of the first mountain rescuers.
caption: Herman Geiger
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