MADAGASCAR: Malagasy minister Serge Gelle was one of two survivors to have swum some 12 hours to shore after their helicopter crashed of the island’s northeastern coast, dw.com has said quoting national authorities.
The cause of the crash was not immediately clear, the report said.
Serge Gelle, the country’s secretary of state for police, and a fellow police officer reached land separately on Tuesday morning. They apparently ejected themselves from the aircraft before swimming to shore, port authority chief Jean-Edmond Randrianantenaina said, according to dw.com.
The two missing passengers were also members of Madagascar’s police force, it said.
In a video shared the Malagasy defense ministry on Twitter, Gelle appears lying on a deck chair, seemingly resting and still in a camouflage jumpsuit.
:My time to die hasn’t come yet,” said Gelle in the video.
Police chief Zafisambatra Ravoavy said that Gelle had used one of the helicopter’s seats as a flotation device.
The chopper was flying its passengers to inspect the site of a shipwreck off the northeastern coast of Madagascar.
Rescue workers had recovered 18 more bodies from the wreck, Ravoavy said. This brought the death toll up to 39.
The boat had 130 passengers on board, of which 45 have been saved.
(With inputs from dw.com/ AFP)
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