Three survivors were found after the crash of a French military helicopter off Gabon, with one soldier dead and six still missing.
“The provisional toll is one dead, one seriously injured, one lightly injured, one who survived unhurt and six missing,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Francois-Marie Gougeon of the general staff in Paris.
Ten French soldiers, including four crew members and six special forces members, were earlier reported missing after the helicopter crashed into the sea on Saturday during a joint exercise off the coast of Gabon.
The Cougar transport helicopter went down off Nyonie, a small town situated between the capital, Libreville, and the town of Port-Gentil further south, Lieutenant-Colonel Pascal Carpentier said in Libreville.
It crashed at 8:08pm shortly after taking off from the landing craft transporter La Foudre, cruising 50km off the Gabonese coast, Gougeon said.
The ship “set off the alert and went to the scene of the crash with its own rescuers who picked up the injured within half an hour.
CALM CONDITIONS
“The sea was calm and the wind low at the time of the crash but the night was very dark,” he said, adding that “search operations will naturally continue all night” with La Foudre, two helicopters and vessels made available by French oil company Total.
An inquiry would be held into the causes of the accident “very soon,” Gougeon said.
The French presidential palace said in a statement earlier that President Nicolas Sarkozy had been informed about the crash and had “asked that all available means in the area be immediately deployed to find the soldiers who were aboard.”
Sarkozy ordered French Defense Minister Herve Morin to travel to the area. He was expected to leave early yesterday morning.
APPEAL FOR HELP
In Libreville, Carpentier said: “We have put all our available means into the operation. There are aircraft and La Foudre. We have also appealed to Total, which has put three vessels at our disposal.”
Six hundred soldiers backed by Cougar and Fennec helicopters were taking part in a joint exercise to coordinate maritime safety operations. During Operation N’Gari, men were to be parachuted onto predetermined targets including Nyonie.
Carpentier said 120 Gabonese troops participated in the exercise, due to run from Saturday until Wednesday.
“At daybreak we will deploy all our means, planes, helicopters, boats ... to take part in the search.”
Gabonese Interior Minister Andre Mba Obame said France had around 1,000 troops in Gabon, a former French colony, with one of four permanent bases in Africa.
The French Forces in Gabon are here to assure the safety of the 12,000 French residents in the country in case of threat and carry out aid missions, according to a press handout.
RE-EDUCATION: The ambassador to Australia told reporters that he understood there ‘might be a process for the people in Taiwan to have a correct understanding of China’ China’s ambassador to Australia yesterday said that Beijing is prepared to use “all necessary means” to prevent Taiwan from being independent, saying there can be “no compromise” on its “one China” principle. Chinese Ambassador to Australia Xiao Qian (肖千) repeatedly told the National Press Club in Canberra that the US was to blame for the recent escalation in tensions, adding that China’s decision to launch ballistic missiles in live-fire exercises in response to US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan was “legitimate and justified.” Xiao said that after a “good start” with the new government of Australian Prime Minister
Newly married and with his first child on the way, auto worker Wang (王) wanted to move into the apartment he bought in Wuhan three years ago, but those hopes were dashed by China’s ballooning property crisis. Saddled with nearly US$300,000 in debt and with his unit nowhere near completion, the 34-year-old decided he had enough and stopped making mortgage payments. He is among numerous home buyers across dozens of cities in China who have boycotted payments over fears that their properties will not be completed by cash-strapped, debt-laden developers. “They said construction would resume soon,” Wang said, only giving his surname. “But
PROPAGANDA LEAFLETS: Seoul voiced ‘strong regret’ as Kim’s sister threatened to eradicate South Korean authorities for sending the virus across the border North Korean leader Kim Jong-un suffered from a “high fever” during a recent COVID-19 outbreak, his sister Kim Yo-jong said yesterday, as she vowed to “eradicate” South Korean authorities if they continued to tolerate propaganda leaflets the regime blames for spreading the virus. Kim Yo-jong blamed “South Korean puppets” for sending “dirty objects” across the border in leaflets carried by balloons, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. The revelation of her brother’s illness marked an unusual admission for a regime that rarely comments on the leader’s health — and then only to show that he shares the struggles of
A landmark sexual harassment case in China yesterday returned to court after an earlier ruling dealt a blow to the country’s fledgling #MeToo movement. Zhou Xiaoxuan (周曉璇) stepped forward in 2018 to accuse state TV host Zhu Jun (朱軍) of forcibly kissing and groping her during her 2014 internship at the broadcaster. While the case of Zhou, now 29, inspired many others to share their experiences of sexual assault publicly and sparked a social media storm, a court ruled last year there was insufficient evidence to back her allegation. Zhou appealed, and returned to court for another hearing yesterday in Beijing. “I still feel
RSS