Crew of three rescued from the sea after military helicopter crashes

Three crew members of a military helicopter which crashed in the Atlantic Ocean have been rescued. They were picked up by a Moroccan patrol boat after being spotted in a life raft when they fired a flare. The survivors were taken to the Moroccan-controlled western Sahara town of Dakhla. Their Eurocopter Super Puma went down on Thursday afternoon about 500 miles from its destination on the Spanish island of Gran Canaria. It had set off from Mauritania after refueling there following two weeks of military exercises in Senegal. A Moroccan rescue helicopter sent to the scene spotted the aircraft floating and flares were fired from a life raft before the patrol boat picked up the crew. It is not known what caused the helicopter to go down.

Europe helicopter rescue