The alpine rescuer spoke about the incident with Schumacher.

      Yannick Denez is a helicopter pilot, one of the rescuers who participated in the operation to evacuate the injured Michael Schumacher from a ski slope in the French Alps on December 29, 2013. He works in Grenoble in the civil rescue service and gave his first interview to the sports newspaper L’Équipe, sharing memories of what happened that day after the dramatic incident in which the famous racer sustained a life-threatening head injury.

      “The rescuer climbed into the helicopter cabin with a doctor from the paramedic team and shouted to me, ‘Let’s go to Schumacher!’” Denez recounted. “At first, I thought he was joking. But when the crew commander ordered to remove the microphones and GoPro cameras from the helmets and forbade journalists from joining us, I realized it was true.

      We didn’t ask questions or talk. In such cases, to maintain composure, it is very important to set aside all emotions. Unfortunately, many skiers become victims of the mountains, and for me, he was just another person who had sustained serious injuries.

      Of course, on a subconscious level, there was pressure, because even though I wasn’t an F1 fan, I knew that the public adored him. And when you see a celebrity of that level in such a situation, it does make an impression.

      All these years, I didn’t want to communicate with the press to avoid problems. Moreover, I don’t have the kind of lawyers that the Schumacher family has.”

      Since the beginning of 2014, the family of the seven-time world champion has established a real information blockade, and access to their Swiss estate and villa in Mallorca is only granted to specially selected medical personnel and a few of their closest friends. Their circle is quite narrow – it includes Jean Todt, Ross Brawn, Gerhard Berger, Luca Badoer, and Felipe Massa.

      Reliable information about Michael Schumacher's condition has not been available for a long time, however, last winter the British tabloid Daily Mail reported that Michael Schumacher is no longer bedridden. The racer’s family did not comment on this, although there have been several instances where they initiated legal proceedings against the media if certain stories appeared that they considered false and violating the right to privacy.