By Noora Ibrahim.
Benghazi, 18 February 2014:
The families of five Air Force officers who went missing six days ago when radio communications were . . .[restrict]lost with a military helicopter have called off a brief blockade of Benghazi’s Benina Airport.
The families, demanding that the government stepped up efforts to find out what happened to the helicopter, which disappeared just minutes after taking off from Essider, blockaded the airport last night. They ended the action when authorities promised to meet their demands, spokesman for Benghazi Joint Security Room, Ibrahim Sharaa, told the Libya Herald. The blockade, he said, meant that work was suspended until this afternoon.
The information conflicts with earlier media reports that the airport had been closed due to a strike over unpaid salaries by revolutionary brigades providing airport security. A source close to Beninia Airport security confirmed that security staff had not been paid for over five months.
Navy divers were sent to the area near the last known point of contact with the helicopter after a rotor-blade was found near the coast, not far from Essider. Military and civilian authorities are still searching for further wreckage and evidence of what became of the helicopter. [/restrict]
