The crew of the Freedom Flotilla boat, Handala, warned Israel to obey international law but are now in captivity, reports LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
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‘There were too many people on the rubber boat, and we were too few’
Open Arms search-and-rescue Coordinator DAVID LLADO tells the Star's Ben Cowles about the moment 118 refugees fell into sea when their boat split in half and how his team rescued them
Open Arms search and rescue co-ordinator David Llado
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RIGHT at the moment when the Open Arms rescuers began transferring the first person onto a rigid-hull inflatable boat (Rhib), the back of the refugees’ deflating rubber vessel tore apart, dropping 118 people into the Mediterranean.
“Thank god everyone had already been given a life jacket,” says David Llado, the search-and-rescue (SAR) co-ordinator for the Spanish non-government organisation’s eponymous ship.
“Because even with them, five people drowned. And then, later, a six-month-old baby boy that we were able to recover through CPR also died while we were waiting for a medical evacuation.”
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