President awards medals to victims of helicopter crash

TIRANA, Nov. 20 – President Alfred Moisiu awarded Monday medals to all the victims of the July helicopter crash, including professor of economics Gramoz Pashko. Sander Baloi, Vangjel Condi, Demush Heba and Qemal Koni were awarded with the Eagle’s Golden Medal while Pashko with Great Master medal. Pashko was being taken by helicopter, the official one who only hours before had taken the prime minister from another town to Tirana, to Italy after an accident following which he was in a comma. Pashko’s son was also at the helicopter. Moisiu said he felt obliged to respect the four pilots and medical staff who challenged weather and other technical difficulties to save a life. “The work of these people will remain a testimony of the human sacrifice,” Moisiu said at the ceremony. It is believed that weather conditions were the cause of the helicopter crash, though results of investigation are still to be made public.