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Serge Gell, 57, swam for 12 hours after his helicopter crashed while visiting the site of dozens of dead boats.
Madagascar’s police minister and an air force mechanic managed to swim for 12 hours after their helicopter crashed in the Indian Ocean.
General Serge Gelle, the 57-year-old secretary of state for the gendarmerie, was found in the water by a fisherman who was taken ashore in a canoe, authorities said.
Another passenger, General Deputy Jimmy Laitsara, swam to Mahambo Beach.
“It’s not my turn to die yet, thank God. I am well. I’m just cold, ”Gell said in a video posted to the Madagascar Ministry of Defense on Twitter. “But I’m sad because I don’t know if my friends are alive or not.”
Gelle appeared in a chair, still in his military camouflage, his hands pale and wrinkled in the water and cold.
“There were four of us on the plane. I was sitting behind the pilot, ”he said in an accident Monday afternoon.
“Since I didn’t have a life jacket, I released the seat and used it as a buoy. I was relaxed and took off my heavy boots like boots and belt. I did my best to stay alive, ”he said. Gell said he expected to return to work within 24 hours and said he lost his cell phone in the accident.
Many in Madagascar applauded Geller’s feat, calling him a “hero”, a “great sportsman” and an “example to follow” on social media.
The cause of the helicopter crash is “unspecified,” authorities said. Gell said wind gusts destabilized the plane. The helicopter pilot and another passenger are still missing.
The helicopter was a government delegation on one of the planes, a boat sank in France to see the site, and at least 64 people drowned.
“Twenty-five bodies were found this morning near the Sainte-Marie Islands, probably as a result of sea currents, which resulted in a total of 64 deaths,” Gendarmerie General Zafisambatra Ravoavy told AFP news agency.
Among the dead were five children.
The small cargo ship that sank on Monday was carrying 138 people illegally, according to a note issued by the Sea and River Port Agency on Wednesday.
Efforts to rescue more than 20 missing people continue, the agency said.
France sank on Monday morning, 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the town of Soanierana Ivon.
“A flood in the engine room caused the massacre. Of course, the ship exceeded its cargo capacity, ”said Maurice Tianjara, deputy director general of the shipping agency.
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