Crew of missing Spanish helicopter discovered dead in cabin

The Spanish ministry of Defense confirmed on Thursday that the bodies of the 3-man crew of the Superpuma helicopter which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean a week ago have been discovered in the cabin of the craft after it was lifted up from the seabed.

The discovery put an end to a week of confusion in which the Defense Ministry at first confirmed the trio; Jose Morales Rodriguez, Saul Lopez Quesada and Jhonander Ojeda had been rescued by the Moroccan military, only to backtrack and say they had received mistaken information and then refuse to rule out "any hypotheses" pertaining to the fate of the crew, including a possible kidnap.

Confusion continued to surround the fate of the crew even as late as Wednesday when the Judge in charge of investigating the incident, said he "did not have knowledge" the bodies of the crew were in the cockpit." It was also reported that the crew of the only boat in the area at the time, a Dutch fishing vessel had commented they had not seen anyone in the cabin prior to it sinking.

The helicopter crashed at around 15:00 last Thursday while flying from Senegal to the Canary Islands and after an extensive search, was discovered in 40 meters of water, around 40 nautical miles off the coast of the Western Sahara. Endit