Rescue, the millionaire flights of the golden helicopter

"I don't give a shit about getting the best car." The slang, certainly not learned from the Ursulines, is of the eminence gray of the helicopter rescue in Sardinian sauce, cooked, however, in the rooms of the Regional Emergency and Urgency Agency of Lombardy. When the men of the Olbia Finance Police intercept him it is November 24, 2017. The contract for the helicopter rescue in Sardinia is in full swing. He, Alberto Zoli, one of the powerful in Lombard health, with a penchant for the helicopter rescue of the Nuraghi Island, was giving indications on the type of helicopters to prefer to cross the Sardinian land in the event of a health emergency.

Longa manus

Director-General of the Health Emergency in the Po Valley, member of the commission of the Conference of Regions, he is responsible for the implementation of the Single European Emergency Number 112, with a "longa manus" on Sardinian healthcare. refers to the air vehicles that must be chosen for the helicopter rescue service in Sardinia. This is noted by the Gallura Yellow Flames who are listening to the fire sign that is projecting, with hungry exuberance, to transport the wounded to around the island. One hundred and fifty-three pages of rants and open-voice confessions that will lead the Temple Prosecutor's Office to distribute the dossier around the courts of half of Italy, triggering sensational investigations that will lead, first of all, to the arrest of some of the protagonists of the air rescue cartel It all started with the tender for the registered helicopter rescue Sardinia.

Helicopters for TV

At the base of the whole system - according to what the investigators write in the documents - there is a real association "aimed at the realization of a wider criminal program". Unequivocal cards from which the active role of the Lombard manager emerges in a blatant manner in the Sardinian tender. According to the financiers, it is he who "provides" the call for the helicopter rescue to the Sardinian Region, with the aim of imposing the Lombardy model on the island, with an eye to the whole of Italy. The investigative framework maintains that Zoli "does not hesitate to make use of the importance of the various positions he holds to get his hands on the calls for the emergency sector - urgency". According to the papers, the objective that animates Zoli is to replicate the "winning format" of the Lombard Agency in every Region. A model built around the table, given that a plan of propaganda and TV emerges from the interceptions.

Pioltello's drama

In the investigation that started in Sardinia, the Lombard executive was also intercepted in the middle of the Pioltello disaster, the train accident that took place on the morning of January 25, 2018 on the Milan-Venice railway, causing three deaths and 46 injuries. Zoli's provision to bring out the Po Valley model is explicit in the interception that the Olbia Finance agents collect during the rescue. The words on the phone are disarming: «Send the two helicopters, even three. As long as I can say I have the helicopters deployed. When the televisions arrive, I want everything to be deployed there ». The timing of the tender for Sardinia is already marked. He, the helicopter rescue professor, had already carved out a leading role in Sardinia.

Four months ago

With an agreement approved in November 2016, 4 months before the contract for the helicopter rescue, the Sardinian Region had decided to be taken by the hand by Zoli with the aim, among others, of promoting "implementation activities of the helicopter rescue service Hems (Helicopter Emergency Medical Service) regional ". And it is no coincidence that the investigators write in the report of the investigation that Zoli allegedly "contributed to the planning of the announcement" of Sardinia despite "having no formal design assignment".

The Commander writes

The detailed report that triggers the Sardinia-Italy Helicopter Rescue operation is from Massimiliano Giana, the helicopter commander who had already blown up the fire cartel. The accusation is circumscribed: the contract for the helicopter rescue of the Sardinian Region, soon to be published, is spring 2017 - according to Giana - would provide for "technical and administrative requirements such as to favor those economic operators already subjected to administrative investigations by the Competition Authority and the Market ".

The prophecy

In the report to the Temple Prosecutor's Office there is a key passage: "The tender specifications to be published in the future would have favored a specific model of helicopter, owned by these operators and marketed by companies always connected to the helicopter association management". The document-denunciation of the commander, which we are in possession of, goes further in the provision: "I have learned, from a reliable source within the ENAC (National Civil Aviation Authority), that the administrative and technical requirements of the Tender Regulations and the HEMS ATS-Olbia contract, would have been drawn up through the consultancy of a senior executive of AREU Lombardia together with a female employee of Air-Corporate Srl of the AIRI Srl Group, Exclusive Italian Representative for the marketing, sale and technical support of Airbus helicopters Helicopters, including type H145T2 '.

The promised helicopter

Name and surname of the helicopter, all written in the report. At the turn of August 2017, just a few months after the first complaint to the Guarantor Authority, the Sardinian Region, under the umbrella, publishes the tender. At that point the picture of the contract is even clearer: from the tender documents - according to the documents in the hands of the investigators - it is clear that the technical requirements univocally identify and privilege the specific characteristics of the H145T2, or the Airbus helicopter.

Chance willed

It may be a coincidence, but those same flying blades are only available to Airgreen Srl of Turin, which owns 2, at that time not used in any service, Babcock MCS Italia SpA of Milan, which, however, uses them for other contracts , and Elifriulia di Ronchi dei Legionari, also under investigation. There is a not insignificant detail in the race: the helicopters must not be more than 3 years old. Those of Airgreen, the Airbus H145TD, are just two and a half years old. It is at that point that another not insignificant detail is triggered. Are the wiretapping to reveal it. It is October 26, 2017. The dinner is between Andrea Stolfa, closely linked with Zoli, the vice president of Leonardo-Augusta and the president of Babcock.

That letter from Profumo

Stolfa addresses none other than Alessandro Profumo, the president of Leonardo: «He wrote a letter from the c ... to the President of Sardinia. That one (Profumo ed) made a fool of himself, if he was still it was better ». We do not know what really happened after that letter of protest from Leonardo's number one, but one thing is certain: Airgreen won the tender for the Sardinian helicopter rescue with two Airbus helicopters and one from Leonardo.

Mind-boggling figures

A contract of a thousand and one nights, with dizzying figures. Just one fact is enough: at the end of the carousel the race goes from the announced 66 million to a good 87 million and 579 thousand euros. For the helicopter stationed in Olbia, the Leonardo, the beauty of 236 thousand euros and 1,600 euros per hour of flight are spent at a fixed cost per month. The only vehicle located in Gallura has an overall budget of no less than 3.5 million per year. For the two helicopters of Cagliari and Alghero, the monthly fixed fee is 156 thousand euros each, with an all-inclusive annual forecast of 4 million and 586 thousand euros.

The more you fly, the more you earn

To this must be added everything and more, including increases for the achievement of 12 hours of service based on Cagliari and possible extensions. The final figure rises to 87 million and 579 thousand euros. With an elementary concept: even on the helicopter rescue, the more you fly, the more you earn. A perverse system, with still many mysteries and many deals.