Gov official swims for 12 hours after helicopter crash near Madagascar
A Madagascan government official says he managed to swim a staggering 12 hours toward land after the helicopter he was in crashed into the Indian Ocean.
Serge Gelle, who is Madagascar’s police minister, was one of four people on board the helicopter when it crashed Monday as they responded to the scene of a sinking cargo ship.
Gelle was discovered by a fisherman in a canoe about 500 feet away from the shore at Mahambo, in the country’s northeast, Tuesday morning.
“My turn to die has not yet come, thank God. I’m well. I’m just cold,” Gellé said in a video posted to Twitter by Madagascar’s defense ministry soon after he was found.
Gelle, who spoke while lying on a lounge chair, still dressed in his wet military camouflage, said he used the helicopter pilot’s seat to stay afloat in the water.
“Not having a life jacket, I unfastened the seat and used it as a buoy. I stayed calm and took off anything heavy I was carrying like my boots and belt. I did everything to stay alive,” he said.
“Since I couldn’t fight the waves, I knew I wouldn’t make it to dry land. Yet I was very close. I arrived within 500 meters, but the waves sent me back because I was getting tired.
“I thank heaven that there was a fisherman. But the fisherman’s canoe was too small. So he had to come back for a bigger canoe. So I stayed two more hours in the sea.”
One of the other passengers, Chief Warrant Officer Jimmy Laitsara, was also found alive after the crash.
The pilot and other passenger remain missing, authorities said.
Investigators are working to determine the cause of the crash, but Gelle said that gusts of wind had destabilized the aircraft before it plunged into the water.
The helicopter they were on was one of two that were flying to view the site where the cargo ship sank — killing at least 83 people.
Twenty-five bodies were recovered off the island of Sainte-Marie, in the northeast of the country, on Wednesday.
The search for five remaining missing passengers will resume Thursday.
The cargo ship sank Monday as it was illegally transporting 138 people, officials said.
With Post wires
