School Gets $13,000 Bill for Mountain Rescue of 99 Students

A school has received a $13,600 bill after 99 terrified students had to be airlifted after they were led up a deadly mountain path by teachers.

The youngsters were rescued by helicopter in a howling storm after teachers guiding their group took them up a dangerous Alpine pass.

Now, Austrian rescuers have sent the German school a bill for €13,291.57 ($13,634) for the operation, according to local media.

The students, between the ages of 12 and 14, and eight adults became trapped on the Alpine track in Hirschegg on the Austrian-German border.

After the dramatic rescue, teachers faced furious criticism for leading the children into danger.

German media have reported that the rescue bill will be paid by education authorities in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate.

"The Ministry of Education will check the bill and—unless the bill raises any fundamental doubts—will of course pay it," said a spokesperson.

But the teachers themselves could still be on the hook for some of the bill if they are found to have been grossly negligent.

The public prosecutor's office in the western Austrian town of Feldkirch, Vorarlberg state, is investigating the mountain drama.

The teacher, not named under local privacy laws, who picked the mountain trail from an internet post could even reportedly face prison.

Martin Burger, manager of the Vorarlberg mountain rescue service, reportedly put the size of the bill down to the complicated air rescue.

A police helicopter had to fly for three hours and a mountain rescue helicopter remained airborne for an hour and a half.

During the rescue, the helicopters made 33 separate trips to shuttle the youngsters to safety.

Rescuers, including 50 mountain experts, also worked tirelessly on the ground.

Furious officials blamed the adults accompanying the children for misreading advice on the hazardous path.

The trail is so dangerous that it was removed from official tourist guides.

A teacher only called the police for help after realizing that the exhausted children could go neither forward nor back to their hotel down in the valley.

Two students had already suffered injuries from falling on the slippery and rocky trail, and police later said that many of the children were not wearing appropriate footwear for the hike.

Klaus Drexel, spokesperson for the Vorarlberg Mountain Rescue Association, said it was just a lucky break that his team had access to two helicopters for the rescue.

"We split them into groups. The worsening weather conditions made this operation even more challenging," he said.

"We consider recent developments on the internet very critical.

"Some trails that are listed and rated on the different websites even don't consist anymore."

It later emerged that the teacher planning the trip chose the route after reading a post on a hiking website.

It was described as an ideal opportunity for a "relaxed after-work stroll," but she failed to notice that the post's author was an expert climber who had posted nearly 300 hiking and climbing reports.

Drexel later warned: "Naively trusting what you read somewhere online can get you in unpleasant situations."

He appealed on tourists who are unsure about hiking trails to ask the local tourism office or alpine associations for advice.

Several students reportedly suffered from hypothermia and some needed counseling from local psychologists.

Vorarlberg Police spokesperson Wolfgang Duer said: "Our teams concentrated on getting the students into the valley as quickly as possible.

"The rescue call was made in the late afternoon and it getting dark quickly."

Local police filed a report to the state prosecution in Feldkirch.

In recent years, Austrian authorities have intensified their attempts to charge tourists for complex rescue operations.

There have been numerous cases of careless tourists airlifted to safety after opting for challenging hiking paths wearing just flip-flops or sneakers.

Local rescue institutions warn of the dangers of sudden changes to weather conditions such as sudden downpours, thunderstorms and intense snowfall throughout the year.

Andreas Haid, the mayor of the local town of Mitterberg, said it was getting harder and harder to verify the quality of hiking reports on the internet.

Haid said: "There are more and more individuals acting totally irresponsible by posting such texts online."

Vorarlberg Police pointed out that the hiking track chosen by the German group was anything but easy.

The police announced: "The narrow Heuberggrat path features climbing passages. Individuals with a lack of experience should not take it.

"That is the reason why the local tourism office decided to remove it from their maps some time ago."

This story was provided to Newsweek by Zenger News.