Spanish navy divers continue search for missing helicopter
Xinhua, October 25, 2015 Adjust font size:
The Spanish navy has sent a team of divers to the area 40 miles off the coast of West Africa where a military helicopter with three-strong crew crashed on Thursday.
The divers have joined a unit which is working with mini-submarines equipped with cameras to search for the wreck of the helicopter, which crashed en-route to the Canary Islands after participating in a military exercise in Senegal.
It has been confirmed the crew consisted of a captain, who is married with a child, as well as a lieutenant and a sergeant, who had previously survived a crash which had killed the rest of his crew members in the Canary Islands 18 months ago.
The operation is in part to determine whether or not the three-man crew managed to escape from the helicopter, which is thought to be submerged under 40 meters of water, or whether they were able to escape in a life-raft.
The accident has been surrounded by confusion after the Spanish Defense Ministry mistakenly confirmed the crew had been rescued by the Moroccan military late on Thursday night and was only to be forced to correct that statement on Friday.
Meanwhile Secretary of State for Defense Ignacio Ybanez said Spain will speak with Morocco to discover how the error in communication happened. Endit