1 February: Rega launches its own emergency app for the iPhone: iRega. Already on 5 February, a snowshoe trekker uses iRega to request emergency assistance for his injured companion – and the coordinates transferred enable the rescue team to land at the exact site of the accident in the Furka region.

2 March: Rega refers the ruling by the Federal Administrative Court that Rega patrons’ contributions should continue to be subject to VAT to the Federal Supreme Court. The entire amount of these contributions should, as before, be used to finance air-rescue services.

17 March: The first Rega ambulance jet bearing the new livery lands at Zurich Airport. The repainting of all three aircraft was the last measure in the major overhaul carried out after eight years of operation.

27 July: Thanks to satellite navigation, Rega can now also fly direct to the Inselspital University Hospital in Berne when visibility is poor. The Federal Office of Civil Aviation has approved Switzerland's first civilian GPS approach flight procedure for helicopters. As a result, patients benefit from improved safety in adverse weather conditions and high-lying fog.

11 March: After a minibus accident involving a group of Swiss tourists on Gran Canaria, Rega’s ambulance jets repatriate 11 seriously injured casualties in the course of six flights. One person is killed in the accident and 17 others injured. For this major operation, thatsame day, Rega stations a doctor and a flight coordinator on location to provide the best possible assistance.

10 May: More than 4,000 Rega fans take advantage of the Open Day at the helicopter base in Zweisimmen to look behind the scenes of the newly built base in the Simmen valley, which hadcommenced operations in November 2013. Besides Rega’s EC 145 and Da Vinci helicopters, a Super Puma and EC 635 are on show.

29 July: A tour bus carrying 17 Swiss tourists crashes near Trondheim. A number of passengers are injured, three of them fatally. The very same evening, a jet takes off for Norway.On board are two flight physicians, an intensive care nurse and a flight coordinator, whose task it is to look after the patients on location and organise their repatriation.

13 August: Four Rega rescue helicopters are in operation at the same accident site after a train derails near Tiefencastel (GR). Two are immediately dispatched to the accident site toevacuate the patients, some of them seriously injured, from the steep terrain using a rescue winch. The other two pick up the casualties at an intermediary landing site nearbyand fly them to hospital.

22 August: Rega repatriates a premature baby for the first time in its new own transport incubator. 

2 November: Rega flies its 1,000th rescue mission in response to the alarm being raised directly via its emergency app. The automatic transmission of coordinates from the Operations Center to the cockpit enables patients to be rescued more quickly than ever. To date, the Rega app has been downloaded over 900,000 times.

10 December: The last member of Rega's helicopter fleet, the Da Vinci «HB-ZRS», is equipped with an IFR compatible cockpit. 

31 January: On the Vilan in Graubünden, seven ski tourers are buried under an avalanche. Involved in the rescue operation are three Rega helicopters, eight mountain rescuers from the Swiss Alpine Club SAC and an avalanche dog, as well as two additional helicopters. Three people are found dead; the other four are recovered suffering from serious injuries and are flown to hospital.

26 February: On its approach flight to the Erstfeld helicopter base, a Rega helicopter makes a hard landing. At the time of the incident, four Rega employees are on board; three of them are injured and are taken to hospital.

9 April: The decision relating to the future ambulance jet is made: Rega continues to place its trust in the tried-and-tested Challenger family manufactured by Bombardier. Three new Challenger 650 aircraft will go into operation in 2018. The new ambulance jet features state-of-the-art avionics systems and more powerful engines; also the cabin will be quieter than at present, which benefits both patients and crews.

11 May: The EC 145 helicopters at the four lowland bases are equipped with a so-called roll-in stretcher. Its retractable undercarriage allows patients to be transported more comfortably than ever before. It is compatible with the transport incubator and features the world’s first «pack rack» or stretcher bridge – a medical equipment unit for use in aircraft.

21 June: In order to improve its services to patrons, Rega introduces a new, modern patronage management software. One deficit in particular is rectified as a result: while previously only one patronage card could be issued per Family patronage, now all the family members will have their own card.

13 July: Rega tests an instrument flight route over the Julier Pass, from the Engadin to the Cantonal Hospital in Chur. Measurement devices in the helicopter record the exact position data at each point of the test flight to check the precision of the autopilot. In future, Rega aims to fly patients via this IFR route, which is part of the so-called Low Flight Network, even when visibility is poor.

30 September: The lasting fine weather results in a busy summer for Rega: between June and September, the crews at the 12 helicopter bases are called out on over 3,600 missions.

30 November: Rega installs its own meteorological station on top of the Inselspital in Berne. It is part of a network of measuring stations and webcams that in future will deliver precise, constantly updated flying weather data – a prerequisite for Rega pilots to be able to fly according to instrument flight rules.

1 December: Rega signs a contract with Italian manufacturer AgustaWestland for the purchase of three new all-weather helicopters of the type AW169-FIPS. These twin-engine rescue helicopters, which are fitted with an anti-icing system, will go into operation in 2021 and partially replace the current fleet. With the purchase of the AW169-FIPS helicopters, Rega is a major step closer to its vision of being able to perform air rescues in all weathers.

7 March: Rega CEO Ernst Kohler officially opens the new hospital helipad in Interlaken. In order to further increase the safety of patients and crews, Rega is involved in measures to modernise hospital helipads in Switzerland – not only with advice and expertise, but also with funding. In addition to Interlaken, the hospitals in Frutigen (BE), Nyon (VD) and Thusis (GR) were able to put their new helicopter helipads – which were realised with the support of Rega – into operation in 2017.

1 June: Medical advances in a small format: Rega equips its rescue helicopters and ambulance jets with a newly designed video laryngoscope, which provides images to help secure a patient’s airway. Already in use in hospitals, Rega crews now have at their disposal a technically more advanced device that can also be employed outside the hospital in adverse weather. For example, even on rescue missions in bright sunlight or on glaciers, the image on the display is still clearly visible.

30 August: At the Lago di Lucendro on the Gotthard Pass, Rega puts its last weather camera into operation, thus bringing its several-year major project, «Thor», to a close on schedule. A good 60 measuring stations and weather cameras all over Switzerland now deliver constantly updated information directly into the rescue helicopter cockpit. This precise meteorological data is a prerequisite for flights performed under instrument flight rules (IFR) – and indispensable for all-weather air rescue.

18 September: Rega launches an appeal to the Swiss population to report the whereabouts of low-lying aerial obstacles. Cables or wires that are located less than 25 metres above ground level do not have to be registered at FOCA as aerial obstacles – and are therefore not marked on any maps or charts. These objects pose a significant risk for helicopter pilots: they can cause damage and in the worst case even result in the helicopter crashing. Rega is now recording these low-lying aerial obstacles in its own database.

23 December: FOCA grants Rega special authorisation to use key intersections of the Low Flight Network – a network of IFR flight routes based on satellite navigation – around the clock. These include the military airfields in Emmen and Meiringen, as well as the IFR approaches to the hospital helipad at the Inselspital in Berne. For Rega, this marks a further breakthrough towards realising its vision of all-weather rescue. 

14 February: Rega flies a patient connected to a mobile heart-lung machine from London to Kaohsiung in Taiwan on board its new ambulance jet. With a flying time of 14.5 hours, this is the longest flight ever made by an intensive care patient hooked up to a heart-lung machine. The successful mission was made possible by Rega’s close cooperation with the University Hospital Zurich and its efforts over many years to deploy high-tech medical equipment in its aircraft.

8 March: Rega’s longest serving ambulance jet, the Challenger CL-604 with the registration number HB-JRA, is transported by water from Alpnach across Lake Lucerne to the Swiss Museum of Transport. During its 16 years of service, it flew more than 4,400 patients from all over the world back home to Switzerland. Since mid-April, the ambulance jet has completed the permanent Rega exhibition at the museum. Here it can be viewed at close quarters and thus continues to be in the service of the Swiss population.

15 March: The Rega crew from the Zurich base present their new Airbus Helicopters H145 rescue helicopter to the general public in the main concourse of Zurich Main Station. Visitors have the opportunity to inspect the new Rega helicopter close up and gain fascinating insights into the world of Rega.

12 April: Rega presents a new device for searching for people in distress: the newly developed Rega drone autonomously scans large search areas and is equipped with various sensors, such as a thermal imaging camera. In future, it is to be used as an additional tool to help search for missing, injured or ill persons – for example, when poor visibility makes it impossible to use a helicopter.

28 April: For the first time, a Rega crew flies to the University Hospital Zurich (USZ) in poor visibility under so-called instrument flight rules. The patient needed to be transferred to the main hospital as quickly as possible for an urgent heart operation. Just a few weeks earlier, the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) had approved Rega’s new approach procedures to the USZ and Winterthur Cantonal Hospital.

14 September: Numerous visitors look on as the new rescue helicopter prepares to land at the Olma exhibition site in St. Gallen. Since the beginning of June, the new Rega Airbus Helicopters H145 helicopter has been deployed at the St. Gallen base. Now the crew is presenting «their» new helicopter to the local population.

21 November: Rega is more firmly anchored in in the Swiss population than ever before and on this day welcomes its 3.5 millionth patron. It expresses its grateful thanks for patrons’ support by inviting the new patron – representing all Rega patrons – to the Rega Center. It is only thanks to the solidarity of its patrons that Rega is able to provide the Swiss people with basic medical care by air around the clock.