Ruedi Ott coordinates Swiss Rescue mission to Venezuela; arrival within critical survivor window

Ruedi Ott coordinates Swiss Rescue mission to Venezuela; arrival within critical survivor window

24 hours and 10 minutes

Communication Published on 21 August 2026

24 hours and 10 minutes

When the phone rings at 3.50am, Ruedi Ott is immediately in a race against time. Alongside dozens of colleagues the deputy head of logistics for Swiss Rescue has just 24 hours to organise a highly complex mission. Some 80 specialists, eight search-and-rescue dogs and 18 tonnes of material have to get to the earthquake zone in Venezuela as quickly as possible. Every hour is critical, and each link in the Swiss Rescue chain has to work. It’s going to be a long day.

03:50: When the phone on the bedside table rings, I know immediately that something serious has happened. I’m right. A once-in-a-century earthquake rocked Venezuela just a few hours ago. Soon afterwards the Swiss Seismological Service notified our standby staff of the event. In the meantime they have gathered some initial information about the situation on the ground. In consultation with the Federal Council delegate for humanitarian aid and the embassy in Caracas, the decision has been made to convene the crisis unit. We’re meeting at 07:30 in the crisis room at the SDC in Bern. I still have a good three hours until then. I’m wide awake.

04:30: It’s all systems go. We’re using all the channels we have to mobilise people and to obtain information. As the logistics officer, my job is to determine how we can get our search-and-rescue team to the disaster zone as fast as possible. In other words, I need planes. Right up to the meeting I look into every option we have, from a SWISS aircraft to a charter broker and Swiss Air-Rescue (Rega).

It’s 07:30 and I’m in the first Operational Control Group meeting along with representatives of all the units relevant to a possible rapid response. These are the delegate for humanitarian aid and head of the Swiss Humanitarian Aid Unit (SHA), and people from the Swiss Armed Forces, the embassy in Caracas, HR managers, logistics officers, media spokespersons and other experts. The key question is whether Switzerland will send a team of search-and-rescue specialists to the disaster zone.

The answer is a unanimous yes. Venezuela has declared a state of emergency and requested international assistance. Our aim is to be on the ground as quickly as possible, as long as there is still a chance of finding and rescuing survivors. My enquiries have located a Rega jet that can leave from Zurich at 18:30 with an advance team. We still haven’t been able to find a large passenger plane to transport the search-and-rescue team and the supplies, however, because SWISS is not able to fly to Venezuela. Under heavy pressure, we’re doing everything we can to find alternatives.

It’s 09:30 when we get the call we’ve been waiting for. We now have a passenger plane to transport Swiss Rescue, but it can’t leave Zurich Airport until 02:00 the next morning at the earliest.

At 11:30 the Operational Control Group formally decides to deploy Swiss Rescue, the specialist search and rescue system for unusually large earthquakes in urban areas. A detachment of 80 specialists, eight search-and-rescue dogs and 18 tonnes of operational material and luggage have to be mobilised and made ready to travel by this evening. For the Humanitarian Aid Logistics (H-Log) team, this means providing and checking materials and getting them transport-ready, while also mobilising Swiss Rescue personnel.

14:30: At the warehouse in Wabern, near Bern, we start loading the trucks with operational material: tents, food, generators, water provisions, detection and extraction apparatus, and medical equipment. It’s all ready to go in the cargo hold.

15:30: Zurich Airport confirms the exceptional night flight permit. It means we will arrive within the critical period in which survivors might still be found and rescued. Our team will be one of the first to land in Venezuela, but where exactly we don’t yet know. The airport in Caracas has been damaged and is not taking incoming flights.

At 18:30 the engines of the Challenger 650 roar into life outside the Rega hangar at Zurich Airport. It is carrying the advance team deployed by the SDC. The six specialists from the SHA will prepare for the arrival of the search-and-rescue team. Their task is to assess the local situation, make contact with the national authorities and international teams, find a location for our camp and organise the transport of the operational material and SHA personnel to the area that has been hit.

At 21:00 the SHA personnel gather at the mobilisation station in the Rega hangar at Zurich Airport. A few hours earlier they were still at their jobs as engineers or doctors, or serving in the Swiss Armed Forces. Now they are dressed head-to-foot in orange, ready to go. I know how keyed up you feel before operations like this. In younger years I pulled on the same uniform and completed two missions following the quakes in Turkey. Now I organise transport out to the operation, and my team ensures that the operational personnel are equipped with radios, satellite phones and other technical and medical supplies.

02:47: The Airbus A340-300 takes off, bound for Venezuela. Its destination is the alternative airport in Maracay, some 8,000 kilometres away from here and around 150 kilometres west of Caracas. We’ve done it – thanks to great teamwork in H-Log and with our colleagues at head office, the SHA personnel and our many external partners. From the alert being raised to supplies being unloaded where they are needed, each link in the Swiss Rescue chain is crucial to the success of the mission. Once again everything worked perfectly from start to finish. I go home after a satisfying day’s work.

04:00: The phone is back on the bedside table, and 24 hours and 10 minutes after the emergency call I slowly wind down for a few hours’ rest. It is days like these that have kept me at SDC H-Log for 20 years.

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