Madagascar’s police minister and an air force handyperson succeeded in swimming for 12 hours to safety after their copter crashed in the Indian Ocean.
General Serge Gelle, 57, the clerk of state for the gendarmerie, was discovered in the water by a fisher in a canoe who brought him to shore, according to officers.
Another passenger, Chief Warrant Officer Jimmy Laitsara, also swam to the sand at Mahambo.
“ My turn to die has not yet come, thank God. I’m well. I’m just cold,” said Gelle in a videotape posted to Twitter by Madagascar’s defense ministry. “ But I ’m sad because I don’t know if my musketeers are alive.”
Gelle appeared on a chesterfield president, still in his military disguise, his hand’s blench and wrinkled by the water and the deep freeze.
“ There were four of us in the aircraft. I was seated behind the airman,” he said of the crash on Monday evening.
“ Not having a life jacket, I untied the seat and used it as a tocsin. I stayed calm and took off anything heavy I was carrying like my thrills and belt. I did everything to stay alive,” he said. Gelle said he anticipated to be back at work in 24 hours and said he lost his mobile phone in the crash.
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Numerous in Madagascar saluted Gelle’s feet, calling him an “ idol”, “ extraordinary athlete” and “ an illustration to follow” on social media.
The cause of the copter crash “ remains undetermined”, authorities said. Gelle said gusts of wind had destabilized the aircraft. The copter airman and another passenger are still missing.
The copter was one of the two flying a government delegation to view the point where a boat, Francia, sank, drowning at least 64 people on board.
“ Twenty-five bodies were planted this morning near Sainte-Marie islets, presumably due to ocean currents, which brings the death aggregate to 64,” gendarmerie general Zafisambatra Ravoavy told the AFP news agency.
Five children were among the dead.
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The small weight boat sank on Monday while it was immorally transporting 138 people, according to a statement on Wednesday by the Maritime and River Port Agency.
Sweats continue to deliver the further than 20 people still missing, said the agency.
Francia sank on Monday morning about 20 km (12 country miles) from the city of Soanierana Ivongo.
“ A deluge in the machine room caused the butchery. Obviously, the boat had exceeded its lading capacity,” said Maurice Tianjara, deputy director-general of the maritime agency.
