"''Medicopter 117 – Jedes Leben zählt“ (English: Medicopter 117 – Every life counts)'' is a

German language German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western Europe, Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and Official language, official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switze ...

television series that RTL and ORF broadcast. ''Medicopter 117'' has seven seasons in 81 episodes and a pilot movie. ''Medicopter 117'' started in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

and

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

on 11 January 1998 with the pilot movie “Der Kronzeuge”. Over 6.67 million people watched the series in Germany. The series ended in 2002.

Broadcasters

RTL ORF 1 RTL KLUB TV NOVA TV PRIMA JEDNOTKA TV JOJ TVN NTN TV3 TV3 TV3 REN TV AXN DIEMA TF1 RTL TVI RTL 4 CUATRO TELMA CHANNEL 5 SÉRIES+ TV5

Description

The Medicopter 117 is a fictitious rescue

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which Lift (force), lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning Helicopter rotor, rotors. This allows the helicopter to VTOL, take off and land vertically, to hover (helicopter), hover, and ...

somewhere in the German

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

whose crews rescue people in danger. The most expensive episode was the last episode in the first season. In the episode “Der Absturz”, a helicopter crashes in the mountains after a collision with a

cable car Cable car most commonly refers to the following cable transportation systems: * Aerial lift, such as aerial tramways and gondola lifts, in which the vehicle is suspended in the air from a cable ** Aerial tramway ** Chairlift ** Gondola lift *** ...

rope. The crash sequence took one minute and cost 1 million DM to film. The episode "Geisterflieger" (Insecticide) was originally set to air on 11 September 2001. This episode was supposed to be the first one of season four. Because of the episode's parallels to the attacks of 9/11, it was broadcast on a later date. But the producers broadcast "Geisterflieger" on 17 September 2002 because its plot was crucial for the entire series. The paramedic Enrico Contini had his first appearance there. Some of the plotlines had to be refilmed because some of the former characters were gone and new ones had appeared in the series. So there are two different versions of this episode. The fourth season began with the episode "Rettet Susi" (Save Susi) on 18 September 2001. From 2008 to 2012, all the ''Medicopter 117'' seasons were released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

. The series aired in several countries with the original German audio, but with English subtitles. It ran in United Kingdom on Channel 5.

Helicopters

The Medicopter 117 is a BK 117 made by the German helicopter manufacturer

Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB) was a West Germany, West German aerospace manufacturer. It was formed during the late 1960s as the result of efforts to consolidate the West German aerospace industry; aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt AG merged ...

. The BK 117 has a special color scheme in red and yellow. ''Medicopter 117'' used two helicopters. The producers borrowed the first helicopter (registration D-HECE) from the DRF ( Deutsche Rettungsflugwacht). When they did not use the D-HECE for the series, it flew real rescue missions at DRF locations. The DRF had ended its cooperation by the beginning of the fifth season. Later, the D-HECE was painted in the DRF colors (red and white). The second helicopter (registration D-HEOE) was a former

police helicopter Police aviation is the use of aircraft in police operations. Police services commonly use aircraft for traffic control, ground support, search and rescue, high-speed car pursuits, observation, air patrol and control of large-scale public events ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

. After its Medicopter career, the D-HEOE flew rescue missions for different operators like DRF, IFA (Internationale Flugambulanz) and the Austrian operator Flymed. This helicopter was used for sightseeing flights a few times. Today, the D-HEOE serves as an offshore helicopter in the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...

List of episodes

Cancellation

Shortly after the end of the 7th season,

RTL RTL may refer to: Media * RTL Group, a European TV, radio, and production company *** List of RTL Group's television stations (including part-owned channels) *** List of RTL Group's radio stations ** RTL Lëtzebuerg, usually referred to simply a ...

announced that it would no longer invest into making the series. The reason they gave was that ″We showed everything there was to show, normal rescues, rescues on ships, rescues in the mountains, rescues from helicopter to helicopter, rescues on motorway bridges and many, many dramatic scenes. Over time, this would all just become similar or even repeat itself. That's why we're forced to stay with 82 episodes in 7 seasons.″ (RTL press release)

External links