The Madagascar Police Minister and a mechanic from the Madagascar Air Force swam for 12 hours to safety after the helicopter they were traveling in crashed in the Indian Ocean.
General Serge Gellé, 57, Secretary of State for the Gendarmerie, was discovered in the water by a fisherman who took him to the mainland in his canoe, authorities said.
Another passenger, Petty Officer Jimmy Laitsara, also swam to Mahambo Beach.
Serge Gellé and Jimmy Laitsara, Madagascar government officials who swam for 12 hours to safety. Madagascar Presidency
"My time to die has not yet come, thank God. I'm fine. I'm just cold," Gelle said in a video posted on Twitter by Madagascar's Defense Ministry.
"But I'm sad because I don't know if my friends are alive."
In the video, Gelle was reclining in a chair in his military camouflage uniform, his hands pale and wrinkled from the water and the cold.
"Four people were in the helicopter. I was sitting behind the pilot," he said about the accident that occurred on the night of December 20.
"Since I didn't have a life jacket, I unbuckled the seat and used it as a buoy. I kept calm and took off all the heavy things like my boots and belt. I did everything I could to survive," he said.
Gelle hopes to be able to return to work soon and said she lost her cell phone in the accident.
On the afternoon of December 22, rescuers recovered the body of Colonel Olivier Andrianambinina, the prime minister's security director.
The pilot is still missing.
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On social media, many people in Madagascar celebrated Gelle's feat and called him a "hero", an "extraordinary athlete" and "an example to follow."
The cause of the helicopter crash "remains undetermined,"
authorities said.
Gelle said the wind gusts had destabilized the aircraft.
The helicopter was one of two that flew in with a government delegation to see the site where the ship Francia sank, an incident in which at least 83 people drowned.
On December 22, more bodies were recovered off the island of Sainte-Marie in the northeast of the country, government officials said.
Fifty people have survived and five are still missing.
The ship sank on December 20 while illegally transporting 138 people, according to a statement issued by the Sea and River Ports Agency.
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Authorities say that efforts are continuing to recover the more than 20 people who are still missing.
The Francia sank during the morning of December 20 about 12 miles off Soanierana Ivongo, a town in Madagascar.
"A flood in the engine room caused the accident. Obviously, the ship had exceeded its carrying capacity," said Maurice Tianjara, deputy director general of the shipping agency.
With information from AP and the
Presidency of Madagascar
