The 57-year-old Madagascar secretary of state for police survived a helicopter crash and a 12-hour swim in the Indian Ocean through the night to reach the shore, the Washington Post reports.
Serge Gelle, the secretary of state for police, was one of four people in the helicopter that was surveying the wreckage of a ship loaded with migrants; 83 people were killed in that wreck over the weekend. As the flight approached the accident site, it got hit by a strong blast of wind and lost altitude, crashing into the water.
An air force mechanic on the flight, Jimmy Laitsara, also survived the crash and was able to make it to shore. The director of security for the prime minister was killed in the crash, and the status of the pilot was unknown.
Gelle said he salvaged a seat cushion from the crash and used it as a flotation device on his swim to shore. As he got closer to shore, he became concerned that he didn’t have the strength to negotiate the surf, but local fishermen saw him and brought him to shore.
“My turn to die has not yet come, thank God,” Gelle said in a video Madagascar’s Defense Ministry posted to Twitter on Tuesday.