During the night, on the Cima Ovest of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo, a mountaineer is no longer able to continue. He encountered difficulties during the ascent and, above all, in the descent along the normal route. He's tired, stuck, can't go back on his own. The alarm goes off, the helicopter takes off, the man is recovered and is unharmed.
On the Gran Sasso, however, five hikers are surprised by a violent summer storm at around 2,600 meters above sea level. They call 112, then move to an area without telephone coverage and become unreachable. The Alpine Rescue technicians went up on foot and found them in good condition inside the tents. Once reached, the five also refuse to be accompanied to the valley.
These are two episodes that actually happened and were told last July by the Italian Alpine Club (CAI) and the National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps (Cnsas). It does not mean that they have been legally classified as "serious misconduct". However, they show how too little time margin, underestimation of tiredness, failure to check the weather or poor call management can set a complex and risky machine in motion. A machine made up of volunteers, healthcare workers, pilots, technicians, ground vehicles and helicopters. And that, while he searches for whoever raised the alarm, he may be needed elsewhere. CAI and CNSAS reconstructed both cases in their safety recall of July 15, 2026.
The record of interventions
The problem cannot be solved with the caricature of the hiker in flip-flops. In 2025, Alpine Rescue carried out 13,037 missions, 8 percent more than in 2024: the highest value ever recorded. There were 528 dead, 9,624 injured, 140 missing. But 4,231 people were recovered unharmed. This last figure should be interpreted with caution. “Uninjured” does not necessarily mean “useless help”: a person stuck on a wall, caught in the dark on an exposed stretch or disoriented during a storm can find themselves in serious danger even if they have not yet suffered injuries. Among the causes of interventions, however, there is also "incapacity during activity", which accounts for 8.1 percent of cases. Hiking, with 43.6 percent of cases, is by far the most involved activity. The data is contained in the Cnsas report on 2025 activity.
Behind these numbers there are inevitable accidents, unpredictable illnesses and suddenly changed environmental conditions. But also outings started too late, routes chosen based on a video seen on social media, technical difficulties underestimated, batteries flat, unsuitable equipment and weather warnings ignored.
The new national rule
An important change came into force on January 1, 2026. The Budget Law, number 199 of 30 December 2025, establishes that anyone who determines a search, rescue or rescue intervention due to willful misconduct or gross negligence, or presents an unmotivated or unjustified request, can be asked to reimburse the cost. Both for the interventions of the Financial Police, the State Police and the Carabinieri. But there is also a change that concerns the Fire Brigade and Coast Guard. However, the law does not transform every intervention by the CNSAS or the regional health air ambulance into a paid service. The National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps has specified that it does not ask money from the recovered people and does not decide on any charges. Any payments are established by the Regions and autonomous Provinces and are applied by the healthcare companies. At a national level, however, the first tariff to become concretely operational is that of the Guardia di Finanza.
Four thousand euros for an hour by helicopter
The decree of the Ministry of Economy of 24 July 2026, published in the Official Journal of 3 August and which came into force the following day, transformed the principle of the law into a real cost list. For staff, it starts from around 30 euros an hour for financiers and officers, rises with rank up to around 60 euros for senior officers and reaches around 70 euros for some specialized air-naval departments. Interventions lasting less than sixty minutes are still counted as one hour. What makes the bill rise are above all the means. A snowmobile costs about one and a half euros per kilometer; a Guardia di Finanza patroller can earn more than a thousand euros an hour. For a mini drone it remains under one hundred euros, while a twin-engine helicopter can exceed four thousand euros an hour and a turboprop plane can approach five thousand. Personnel, vehicles, fuel and equipment can be added to these figures. The decree and the related tariff annex are published in the Official Journal.
For now, therefore, there is not yet a single price list applicable without distinction to all bodies. As of 20 August 2026, the tariffs of the Guardia di Finanza have been adopted, while the decrees for the Police, Carabinieri and Coast Guard are still missing. This is confirmed by the monitoring of the implementation measures of the Presidency of the Council.
What “serious negligence” really means
National law does not contain a catalog of prohibited shoes, prohibited weather conditions or trails on which a call automatically becomes chargeable. “Serious negligence” is a legal threshold, not a label to be applied to every mistake. It's not enough to have taken a wrong turn, to have miscalculated the timing or to have been surprised by an unexpected event. A particularly evident violation of the elementary rules of prudence must emerge, with a foreseeable and avoidable danger and a direct link between that conduct and the intervention that has become necessary.
The following may be considered in the assessment: failure to comply with an access ban or a closure order; entering an area exposed to avalanches despite a particularly high official alert; the choice of an itinerary manifestly superior to one's capabilities; the absence of the essential and required equipment for that specific activity; starting a challenging excursion when the worsening weather is already announced and imminent; a request for help issued without real danger, to simply obtain more comfortable or faster transport.
None of these elements, taken in isolation, always constitutes serious misconduct. A pair of sneakers may be inappropriate on a glacier and perfectly normal on a forest road; the arrival of darkness can result from an irresponsibly late start or from an accident, a landslide or an unpredictable slowdown.
Even tiredness does not automatically make the call abusive. If a person is no longer able to continue and the situation could evolve into a concrete danger, 112 should be contacted. Delaying the alarm for fear of the bill can turn a manageable difficulty into a much more serious emergency.
The same goes for the alarm: it does not go off simply because the emergency services find the person unharmed. The crime concerns the announcement of a disaster, an accident or a non-existent danger capable of activating the authority. A request made in good faith in the face of a reasonably perceived risk is another thing.
At sea the rule is even more explicit
For the Coast Guard, the law uses detailed wording. Payment may be requested when the intervention results from an unmotivated call or when preliminary investigations reveal, even presumptively, conduct that is "severely imprudent, negligent, contrary to navigation safety regulations or determined by incompetence".
It is the maritime equivalent of improvised excursions: going out in prohibitive conditions despite warnings, sailing without the mandatory equipment, ignoring an ordinance, not checking fuel, engine and batteries or using a clearly unsuitable vessel. Here too, however, a mechanical failure alone does not demonstrate negligence: maintenance, conditions of the boat, weather, decisions of the captain and the cause of the emergency will have to be reconstructed.
The obligation to save people in danger does not disappear. The Coast Guard intervenes first; any assessment of responsibility and the bill come later. The relevant tariff decree, however, has not yet been issued.
In Lombardy
The national rules are added to existing regional systems. In Lombardy, regional law number 5 of 2015 and Council resolution
The criterion, therefore, is not simply "yellow and red code for free, white code for a fee". What matters is what is actually found and the health needs following recovery. For a CNSAS ground team the reference is 66.50 euros per hour for Lombard residents and 95 euros for non-residents. For the air ambulance the price goes to 1,050 and 1,500 euros per hour respectively. However, there is a ceiling: 420 euros for residents and 600 for those arriving from outside the region.
When reckless behavior is recognized, rates and limits increase by 30 percent. The limit can therefore reach 546 euros for a resident and 780 for a non-resident. The assessment of the conditions for the charge is up to the regional operations room, in coordination with the health team and, for imprudence, with the Cnsas.
In Piedmont, Trentino and Alto Adige
Piedmont, on the other hand, provides for the entire cost for totally unmotivated calls and a co-payment of up to one thousand euros when the rescue is caused by inadequate equipment, choice of routes incompatible with one's capabilities or failure to comply with indications, prohibitions and limitations. In Trentino, for an unharmed hiker but in serious environmental danger the air ambulance ticket is 750 euros; a totally inappropriate call can be charged between 98 and 140 euros per flight minute. In Alto Adige the co-payment is 100 euros for a justified intervention and can reach up to a thousand euros when the urgency is not ascertained. They are different systems, built over time, which continue to coexist with the new state regulation.
