The minister who swam 12 hours after the crash
Minister Serge Gal and the other survivor each arrived separately on the shores of the town of Mambo yesterday morning, after they managed to escape from the helicopter before the crash. In a video posted on social media, the 57-year-old Gal is seen lying exhausted on a chair, still in the army uniform he was wearing in a helicopter.
“The time to die has not yet come,” the general says in the video, telling a lie to him, but he is not injured. “I want you to broadcast this video for my family, my colleagues and the government to see,” he says. “I’m alive and I’m fine.”
The helicopter that crashed flew the minister and several other personalities to observe the search for missing persons from a ship that sank on Monday morning, a disaster in which at least 39 people were killed and dozens have yet to be found. According to authorities, the minister used one of the chairs in the helicopter to float. Gal himself said he was forced to swim to shore from 7:30 p.m. Monday to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday.
“He has always had excellent athletic fitness, and he has maintained his pace even as a kosher, as if he were 30 years old,” said police chief Zafisambatra Raboabi. Madagascar president Andrei Rajualina also praised Gal, and in a tweet he posted on Twitter wrote about his “devotion,” as he put it.
Gal was appointed minister as part of a male exchange held in the cabinet in August, after three decades in which he served in the police.
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