Brief & Compact: The 2025 Balance
- Station: Flugplatz Jena-Schöngleina
- Call Sign: Christoph 70
- Missions in 2025: 1,089 missions
- Development: approx. +12% compared to 2024
- Most Frequent Reasons: Traffic accidents (34%), cardiovascular emergencies (approx. 25%)
- Radius: approx. 70 kilometers around Jena
Jena / Schöngleina (11.02.2026) – Whenever the rattling sound of rotors is heard in the sky above Jena, most residents know immediately: every second counts. The ADAC rescue helicopter “Christoph 70” is a permanent fixture in the emergency care system of Ostthüringen. The recently published annual report for 2025 impressively underlines how indispensable these “yellow angels” have become: mission numbers have risen noticeably.
Significant Increase in Call-outs
As reported by ADAC Hessen-Thüringen, the crew of “Christoph 70” took off a total of 1,089 times last year. This represents an increase of around twelve percent compared to the previous year, when 976 missions were recorded. This growth reflects a nationwide trend but also highlights the specific workload in the Jena area.
The stationing at the Verkehrslandeplatz Jena-Schöngleina proves to be strategically vital. From here, the helicopter not only serves the city of Jena and the Saale-Holzland-Kreis but also acts as a rapid transport for emergency doctors into rural areas, where ground-based rescue services often face longer travel times.
Accidents as the Primary Cause
A look at the spectrum of missions for “Christoph 70” reveals a unique aspect of the 2025 statistics. While internal medical emergencies often top the lists nationwide, the proportion of accident-related missions was particularly high in Jena:
- 34 percent of flights were due to accidents (traffic, leisure, or work-related accidents).
- Approximately every fourth mission (approx. 25 percent) involved acute cardiovascular diseases, such as heart attacks or severe cardiac arrhythmias.
These figures demonstrate that the helicopter is often called when severe injuries require particularly gentle and rapid transfer to specialized clinics—such as the Universitätsklinikum Jena.
Cross-border Assistance
The standard operating radius of the Jena-based air rescuers is approximately 70 kilometers. Consequently, emergencies do not stop at state borders. In 2025, “Christoph 70” provided aid not only within the Freistaat Thüringen but was also regularly alerted for emergencies in the neighboring states of Sachsen-Anhalt, Sachsen, Bayern, and Hessen. Especially in border regions, the helicopter from Jena is often the fastest available rescue resource to bring an emergency physician to the patient or to fly the patient to a suitable clinic.
Part of a Large Network
The work of the crew in Jena-Schöngleina is part of a comprehensive air rescue network. Nationwide, the non-profit ADAC Luftrettung operates more than 30 stations, which responded to nearly 49,000 missions in 2025. Within Thüringen itself, the supply network is densely woven: alongside the ADAC site near Jena, helicopters from DRF Luftrettung are also active, including locations in Bad Berka, Suhl, and Nordhausen. This cooperation guarantees that during daylight hours, almost any location in Thüringen can be reached by an emergency physician within a maximum of 15 flight minutes.
Conclusion
The increased mission numbers for “Christoph 70” are an indicator of the high pressure on the rescue system, but also proof of the efficiency of air rescue in the region. For the people in and around Jena, the reassuring knowledge remains: when things get critical, fast help comes from above.