Romanian interior minister resigns over medical plane crash
Romanian Interior Minister Radu Strohe has resigned amid the controversy surrounding the crash of a medical helicopter in Transylvania and delayed efforts to rescue the survivors.
Romanian Interior Minister Radu Strohe has resigned amid the controversy surrounding the crash of a medical helicopter in Transylvania and delayed efforts to rescue the survivors. Strohe has said that he stepped down on 23 January in order to defend interior ministry workers who had been wrongfully criticised in the affair. The plane should have been located by other institutions, he said.
The Britten Norman 2 plane, which was carrying organ retrieval staff, came down on 20 January in thick fog at 1,400 m (4,600 ft) in the Apuseni Mountains during a flight from Bucharest to western Romania. The emergency services did not reach the site until seven hours after the crash. By the time they arrived, two of the seven passengers, pilot Adrian Iovan and military medical student Aurelia Ion, had already died due to hypothermia and severe injuries.
On 22 January, Aleodor Francu, head of the Romanian Air Traffic Services Administration, resigned over the affair. Ion Burlui, the Emergency Situations Unit chief, has also resigned. Meanwhile, State Secretary Constantin Chiper, who co-ordinated the rescue mission, has been dismissed by Prime Minister Victor Ponta.
Dr Radu Zamfir, who was among the survivors, has stated that soon after the crash, he gave the emergency services the GPS location provided by his smartphone. According to reports, Zamfir made six separate phone calls to the authorities. The crash scene was first located by local villagers, some four and a half hours after the accident. Prime Minister Ponta described response by rescue authorities as ‘unacceptably slow’.
Aurelia Ion was buried with full military honours on 23 January. The funeral of Aurelia Ion was broadcast by national media.