Daring Helicopter rescue

Arnar Felix Einarsson, a 25 year old mountain guide in Skaftafell, east Iceland and Birkir Árnason, a twenty year old rescue worker from Kirkjubæjarklaustur, played a big part in the rescue of men trapped in an avalanche on Hvannadalshnúkur at noon on Tuesday. They were ferried by the national rescue helicopter TF-LÍF up to the top of Hvannadalshnúkur, Iceland's highest peak, and had to jump two meters down from the hovering aircraft.

This was a dangerous mission as they also had to accompany the five avalanche victims, apply first aid and get them back down through bad weather conditions. Árnason describes the moment when they jumped from the helicopter as " exhilarating but scary."

The men were not prepared for this turn of events. " We were picked up by the helicopter at the parking lot at Sandfellisleið, where you stop to ascend the mountain. We are not experienced rescuers but we have good mountaineering experience and are in good physical shape."

When they found the five men on the peak, they decided to get the three injured men back by helicopter and walk back down with the remaining two. " It was a great team effort and we're happy that we could participate," the rescuers said to journalists upon their return.