Three soldiers injured in Lake Lucerne training accident – Rega helicopter deployed

Three Swiss Army soldiers were injured in a boating accident during a military exercise on Lake Lucerne on Monday evening, 19 October. They were aboard a training boat near Gersau, in the canton of Schwyz, when the accident happened at around 7pm. All three were taken to hospital, one by a Rega air rescue helicopter. The military justice authorities have opened an investigation.

The soldiers belong to Engineer Recruit School 73, based at the military training ground in Brugg, in the canton of Aargau. They were using a Ribcraft training boat for the exercise. How the accident happened, and what manoeuvre the crew was carrying out at the time, remain unknown. No further details are available about the nature or severity of their injuries.

All three soldiers taken to hospital

What is clear is that all three soldiers required hospital care after the accident. While one was flown to hospital by helicopter, it is not known how the other two were transported. The hospitals treating them have not been identified, and there is no further information about how their conditions have developed.

The deployment of a Rega helicopter does not, on its own, provide a reliable indication of how seriously someone has been injured. The choice of rescue transport can depend not only on a patient’s medical condition but also on access to the accident scene and the transport options available. Which, if any, of these factors determined the response near Gersau is unclear. A more precise assessment of the injuries is therefore not possible at present.

The location has been described only as the Gersau area. The boat’s exact position on the lake is not known, nor is its distance from the shore. Describing the incident as a boating accident does not establish whether the vessel capsized, struck something or was involved in another type of accident.

Why army engineers train on the water

Training on water forms part of the duties of the army’s engineer troops. Among their responsibilities is enabling military units to cross rivers and lakes. They build bridges and make military transport across bodies of water possible. Handling boats safely is a fundamental skill for these tasks and must be taught during training.

Engineer Recruit School 73 trains recruits for this work at Brugg. The unit’s base in Aargau should therefore be distinguished from the accident location in Schwyz: Brugg is where the soldiers’ school is based, while Gersau is the area where the accident occurred during the exercise. No further details are available about the specific training assignment on Monday evening.

These engineering skills matter to Switzerland beyond their military purpose. Engineer troops can also be deployed during natural disasters, for example to help during flooding. Knowledge of waterways, crossings and transport on water is consequently relevant to potential operations supporting the civilian population. The exercise near Gersau was, however, military training, not a disaster relief operation.

Military investigators examine what happened

The investigation is intended to establish how the accident occurred. Responsibility lies with Switzerland’s military justice authorities. The fact that they are examining the incident does not, in itself, mean that a cause has already been established or that any participant has been shown to have acted improperly. Both questions must be kept separate from the confirmed facts.

When a training accident is investigated, the sequence of events during the exercise, conditions at the scene and the state of the equipment are generally relevant. It is not known which specific checks have already been carried out in the Gersau case. Nor is it currently possible to say whether human, technical or external factors played a part. Settling on any one of those explanations would be premature.

The description of the vessel as a Ribcraft training boat offers no explanation for the accident either. It identifies the boat used but says nothing about its condition or the circumstances immediately before the incident. The available details do not establish whether the boat was damaged or whether any other people or vessels were involved.

Questions remain over injuries and training

The immediate priorities are the condition of the three injured soldiers and establishing the sequence of events. No timetable for the investigation’s findings is known. There is also no information about whether the army has changed its exercises following the incident. Any specific consequences for boat training therefore remain unclear.

For the army, the investigation will need to establish whether the accident has implications for future exercises. The evidence needed to draw those conclusions is not yet available. Neither the helicopter deployment nor the type of training boat provides grounds to anticipate the findings.

For now, the confirmed facts are the accident during training near Gersau, the admission of all three soldiers to hospital and the deployment of Rega. Why the exercise on Lake Lucerne ended with three soldiers injured remains the central question for investigators.