2024-04-03 08:45:37
“Nothing shocks me anymore”, responds Wolfgang Guckert when asked how he feels after the devastating fire that broke out on the morning of March 26 at the Luxembourg Air Rescue (LAR) medical camp). She saw too much. The 65-year-old pilot, who has been flying missions for Luxembourg Air Rescue for 35 years, has seen it all. There is nothing that will make you lose your cool.
Wolfgang Guckert, the first pilot of Luxembourg Air Rescue. © Credits: Gerry Huberty
Wolfgang Guckert was the pilot who made the first flight in the LAR rescue helicopter in March 1989. No one remembers the exact date. Too much time has passed, too many missions have been carried out. Since its creation, LAR has changed location three times and sometimes documents are lost. This is why, for many years, the anniversary of the inaugural flight has simply been celebrated on March 1st.
From Luxembourg to Brussels with a map
Wolfgang Guckert remembers, however, that it must have been early March 1989. The day in Luxembourg was shrouded in thick fog and the weather was bad for flying. “At the time, we thought the association wouldn’t survive,” he recalls. But a child with a body covered in burns had to be transported from the Luxembourg hospital (CHL) to the military hospital in Brussels. The pilot flew over Brussels with only a map of the city to orient himself.
At the time, we thought the association would not survive.
Wolfgang Guckert
First pilot of Luxembourg Air Rescue
At the time, Wolfgang Guckert, 29 years old, was a pilot in the German Air Rescue Guard. Every week he was in Luxembourg. “I didn’t ask many questions, I went to Luxembourg as a paratrooper,” he explains. For this native of Hunsrück, it was practical to live in the country, as his parents were not far away. He spent his days in the Air Rescue caravan, “sometimes heated, other times not”. That was all there was. Others played cards while he learned the theory of getting his pilot’s license. At that time, Luxembourg Air Rescue was still far from having modern facilities. LAR’s president and founder, René Closter, had purchased the caravan from a campsite owner in Rosport.
René Closter (3rd from right) founded Luxembourg Air Rescue in 1988. © Credits: Horst Götz-Schmit/LW-Archiv
The fact that Wolfgang Guckert discovered his passion for flying and piloted the first LAR mission was due to a series of coincidences. He didn’t pay much attention at school—his teachers called him “useless”—so at age 14, he trained as a car locksmith. His parents were furious, but he didn’t care: “Anyway, I just wanted to touch things.”
I thought I was in the wrong movie. I’m afraid of heights, I don’t speak English and they’re accepting me as a helicopter pilot.
Wolfgang Guckert
First pilot of Luxembourg Air Rescue
For him, it was clear that in the future he would enlist in the Bundeswehr (German armed forces). And it didn’t take long: he was recruited as a helicopter engine technician. What irritated him most during this period were the military exercises. “Bury myself in the forest on weekends and recreate the war,” he says. So he applied internally for anything and everything-including jet and helicopter pilot. He was “stunned” when they sent him to Fürstenfeldbruck (Germany) for a medical examination.
Alone in Alabama
A woman gave him a stress electrocardiogram. After eight minutes, she would have the verdict: “Your pulse rate is over 200, we have to stop”, said the specialist. But young Guckert didn’t give up. For three months, he ran “5,000 meters” every day. And he finally passed the stress test. At the time, the Bundeswehr was desperate for helicopter pilots, so he was admitted to the first training course – despite the psychologist writing: “Suitable under conditions”.
“I thought they had tricked me in the film. I’m afraid of heights, I don’t speak English, and they accept me as a helicopter pilot.” So the pilot, afraid of heights, moved to Bückeburg to receive training. He learned and became good at English. What he didn’t know was that if they were good, they would be sent to America for basic training. The world fell apart and he couldn’t imagine leaving Hunsrück, let alone flying “alone” to America. At 18, he packed his suitcase and crossed the Atlantic to Alabama.
Young people in a helicopter
After two months, he broke his leg while motocrossing and was flown back to Koblenz. “Next week, a colleague will come to see him and, if he can give him a lift, we will send him back to the unit”, said the doctor. Less than six months later, Wolfgang Guckert was back in the helicopter.
Although flying has allowed him to travel the world and see Greenland, Tokyo, Africa and Southeast Asia from above, his heart beats faster when it comes to helicopters. For him, it is “total freedom”. He remembers the helipad in Ludwigsburg, which was right next to a 14-story building. There, the young pilots had fun climbing the helicopter vertically next to the building to see the inside of each floor.
“Total loss” at the Air Rescue medical warehouse in Findel
Intervention in Pakistan in 2005
In 2005, a violent earthquake shook Pakistan, killing more than 80,000 people. The operation in the mountains of Kashmir, in the heart of the Himalayas, was particularly etched in Wolfgang Guckert’s memory. Rescue teams provided medicine and food to villages isolated from civilization. And they transported the sick. “We were on the air at least eight hours a day,” he recalls.
He flew over abandoned valleys. “And then we saw a hill. And on that hill, a village, remember. Only one question crossed their minds: what were the people doing on that plateau? Up close, they realized that the villagers had built a ladder around the rock, which they “went down” once a week to fetch water from the riverbed. “The way people looked at us when we landed: it was unimaginable”, he recalls.
Luxembourg Air Rescue appeals for donations from the public to cover the damage caused by the fire
Wolfgang Guckert has been flying for Luxembourg Air Rescue for 35 years. This month of March was his last month of work, he is preparing to retire. “I’m glad I don’t have the phone ringing at two in the morning. I will no longer have to transport organs”, he says. However, he has always considered that the transport of organs is essential: “On each flight, a person’s life is influenced.” Never had a flight gone wrong in his career. “The doctor always arrived with the organ,” he says.
*This article was originally published on Luxembourg word and adapted for Contacto by Ana Tomás.
2024-04-03 08:45:37