Michael Schumacher’s rescuer has broken his 12-year silence over his tragic skiing accident. The seven-time Formula 1 World Champion suffered a serious head injury while skiing in the French Alps in December 2013. The motorsport legend was off-piste skiing with his son in the French Alps when he fell and hit his head on a rock, suffering a serious traumatic brain injury. Since then, the driver’s family has completely avoided the public spotlight.
Michael is known to live in Switzerland and Mallorca, where he receives round-the-clock medical care. His wife, Corinna Schumacher, and their two children, Mick and Gina-Maria, strictly guard his privacy, not discussing his current health or daily life. More than ten years after the tragedy, one of the rescuers who pulled him from the mountain has broken his silence and shared details of the tragic incident.
Emergency services worker Yannick Dainese, who was the helicopter pilot on duty at the time of the accident, spoke publicly for the first time in an interview with the French newspaper L’Équipe. He said that after receiving an emergency call from the ski resort, they were told that the victim was a motorsport star, and he and his colleagues were ordered to remove their microphones and GoPro cameras.
Subconsciously, of course, there was pressure, because although I was not a fan of Formula 1, I knew that people worshiped it like a god, said Yannick, who now works as a pilot for the French Civil Security Service at the Grenoble Air Base.
Yannick successfully transported the driver to Grenoble University Hospital in 25 minutes, where a medical team was already ready to act.
What I saw shocked me: there were so many buses, red flags and people everywhere that the hospital grounds turned into a Formula 1 track. “It was unbelievable,” he added.
Explaining why he had remained silent about the incident until now, Yannick said he didn’t want to add to the rumours surrounding the situation.
I didn’t want to talk to the media to avoid problems. Besides, I don’t have the same lawyers as the Schumacher family! — he concluded.
