For the fourth consecutive day, the search to find Cristian, the 25-year-old young man still missing in the waters of the Natisone, has resumed. The rescuers got to work despite the difficulties caused by the worsening weather conditions which caused the water levels of the Natisone to rise again, making them cloudy again. Meanwhile, a discussion on the relief efforts opens, after the request of the minister with responsibility for Civil Protection, Nello Musumeci (anticipated two days ago on his Facebook profile and registered today), for a detailed report on the matter. There is discussion, among other things, about the opportunity to have intervened with the helicopter that took off from Marco Polo airport in Venice.
The Udine Prosecutor’s Office is concentrating on verifying the SOS management records and on the opportunity of having chosen to use an aircraft hundreds of kilometers away from the site of the tragedy in the immediate aftermath of the events. An information activity that comes in the aftermath of the first requests also made by the relatives of the victims, who ask to know the truth about the terrible minutes of the first aid. According to a reconstruction made by Ansa, the first emergency call was made around 1.25pm on Friday by one of the victims who worriedly said she had remained “prisoner” with her two friends on the riverbed due to the water level which rose and prevented them from returning to shore.
The person in charge of the central single regional number 112 managed the SOS as a technical rescue – in which there were no people with health problems – and therefore decided to divert the request to the Provincial Command of the Fire Brigade of Udine, which sent, with the utmost urgency, the crew closest to the location of the request and immediately activated the specialized river teams and put the divers on early warning. At the same time, Drago, the helicopter stationed at Venice’s Marco Polo airport, was activated and began preparing its flight plan and started its engines. Given the rise in the river level, a few minutes later, the girl who had made the first call, in a state of panic, again called for help to arrive, imitated by at least half a dozen passers-by, who were crossing the Roman bridge and they understood the difficulty of the case.
In the meantime, the fire brigade ground staff had also arrived in the area: considering that Drago had recently started the journey towards Friuli Venezia Giulia, the intervention of the Sores Fvg medical helicopter was requested, with a technician from the Alpine Rescue on board, who could carry out specific maneuvers for possible recovery outside the aircraft. This second helicopter took off a few minutes after Drago, but, having to travel a distance that can only be covered in 8 minutes, it arrived in Premariacco much earlier. The three boys, unfortunately, a few moments earlier – only a couple of minutes according to eyewitnesses – had already been swallowed by the river, despite the heroic rescue attempt by the firefighters, one of whom even jumped into the water, risking he too was dragged by the impetuous current.
