Tbilisi: The President of Georgia, Salome Zourabichvili, on Friday, posthumously awarded the crew, rescuers, and the first responders who died in the border police helicopter near the winter resort town of Gudauri in Georgia’s north in July with the state medal for civic dedication.
The award ceremony, held at the Orbeliani presidential palace, involved family members of eight victims in the incident, along with interior minister Vakhtang Gomelauri and health minister Zurab Azarashvili in attendance. The president, at the ceremony, told the victim’s families, “I share your grief, [which] is not only yours but also a grief of the country”.Â
This is called self-sacrifice when you sacrifice your life to save others. This is probably the highest human honour – we should never forget this”, the president noted in her statement.
Expressing gratitude to the president for her decision to award the heroes, the interior minister also thanked Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and the religious authorities for their support.
The operation claimed the lives of eight people – among them four pilots, two rescuers and two first responders. We have lost our heroes [and] professionals”, Gomelauri said while telling the families of the victims that “we will always be by your side to ease this great pain, if possible”.Â
Earlier, the interior ministry had awarded the four pilots and two rescuers with its first-degree medal for special merit, meanwhile, the country’s Prime Minister announced in August the families of rescuers and first responders would receive ₾100,000 ($35,087) each.
The helicopter that carried eight professionals lost control, crashing into a ravine on July 29 while on a rescue operation to assist paragliders who had ended up in the ravine earlier.
The causes of the crash are still under investigation, with the interior ministry dismissing the allegations of technical faults with the aircraft linked to lack of maintenance.
