Spain to widen search area for missing helicopter

Spanish Defense Minister Pedro Morenes said on Sunday that the search area for the missing Superpuma helicopter which crashed 40 miles off the coast of west Africa while flying to the Canary Islands on Thursday would be widened.

Morenes made his declaration two days after admitting that reports the three-man crew had been rescued were in fact false, blaming a breakdown in communications with Morocco for the error.

On Saturday a team of 14 navy divers joined a Spanish navy vessel equipped with mini submarines to look for the helicopter, which is thought to have sunk in around 40 meters of water.

"We have widened the control area," said Morenes, who explained there are now two search zones: one 20x20 kilometers and another which is 400x60 kilometers, where "fishing boats are being organized to look for anything which could be related to the incident."

There is no sign of the crew, who could still be inside of their helicopter, or have taken to a life-raft, or according to the minister even have been kidnapped by pirates.

"I am not ruling out any hypothesis. We are working on everything and our intelligence services are working," said Morenes, who confirmed that the investigation was now being made secret.

Two Spanish navy vessels and two from Morocco are now working in the search area aided by two helicopters, along with two CN-295 aircraft and four F-18 fighter planes. Endit