Three local mountaineers—an octogenarian couple aged 60 and the wife’s 62-year-old brother—died on Sunday in the area of the 2,635 m-high Mittagspitze south of Flirsch in Tyrol (Landeck district) in a particularly tragic manner: they were struck by lightning and fatally injured during their descent amid a sudden weather change. Rescue teams found the three lifeless near a marked path at an altitude of around 2,270 m in the evening.

When the climbers had not returned home by evening, their relatives filed a missing-persons report shortly before 7 p.m., a police spokesperson told APA. Earlier, around noon, the trio had called in from the summit to report the weather turning bad and then immediately begun their descent.

That evening, a search operation involving police, mountain rescue, and the “Christophorus 5” air-ambulance helicopter was launched. According to Patrick Wechner, operations leader of the alpine police, they located the three relatively quickly with the help of precise route information from the family. A paramedic, dropped off near the accident site, could only confirm their deaths.

Challenging Rescue

The operation was made very difficult by heavy rain, intermittent fog, and strong winds. As a result, the recovery had to be carried out by the air-ambulance helicopter under adverse conditions. Wechner noted that all three were experienced mountaineers.