New Delhi: The Malagasy secretary of state for police was one of two survivors who swum to the shore on Tuesday after their helicopter crashed off the island's northeastern coast, authorities said, according to AFP. Both swam to the shore of a seaside town of Mahambo on Tuesday.
Minister Serge Gelle and a fellow policeman reached land separately on Tuesday morning, apparently after ejecting themselves from the aircraft, port authority chief Jean-Edmond Randrianantenaina was quoted as saying by AFP.
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A video shared on social media, 57-year-old Gelle appears lying exhausted on a deck chair, still in his camouflage uniform. "My time to die hasn't come yet," says the general, adding he is cold but not injured.
Police chief Zafisambatra Ravoavy said that Gelle had used one of the helicopter's seats as a flotation device. The cause of the crash is not yet clear.
The helicopter 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 on December 21. This brought the death toll up to 39. The boat had 130 passengers on board, of which 45 have been saved.
Ravoavy earlier told AFP that Gelle had used one of the helicopter's seats as a flotation device. The two missing passengers were also part of the police.
"He has always had great stamina in sport, and he's kept up this rhythm as a minister, just like a thirty-year-old," he said. "He has nerves of steel", he added.