The Protopsaltis family was hosted on the “air” of OPEN TV station, thanks to their initiative to bring a crane vehicle to the site of the shipwreck in Diakofti, which saved dozens of migrants' lives on Wednesday night, 05/10.
Michalis Protopsaltis was talking to the morning show “Ora Ellada”, to the presenters Dimitris Kampourakis and Panagiotis Stathis, who comes from Kythera.
Next to him were his two nephews, Dimitris and Panagiotis, and behind him in the background was the same vehicle that had performed the miraculous and miraculous work that night.
The Prime Minister's congratulations and the promise
Michalis Protopsaltis revealed that at 13:30 on Sunday, 09/10, he received a phone call from the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who conveyed his personal thanks for the work he has done at the site of the shipwreck and promised to meet him in person on a trip he plans to make to Kythera. He pointed out to him that it was thanks to this work that he had helped his country to refute the charges against him. Protopsaltis “urged” Turkish President Erdogan «not to accuse the Greeks of sinking boats and drowning people».
The floor was then given to his nephew, Dimitris, who was the one who was originally in the port for some work and had the idea of using the crane vehicle when he first saw the terrible sight of the wreck, to which he rushed with his other nephew, Panagiotis.
For Dimitris Protopsaltis, an important role in the whole operation was played by the ship of the line, Aqua Jewel, which interrupted the sailing to Crete and arrived at the accident site with all lights on to facilitate the rescue work. Dimitris also revealed that it was a big risk to use a vehicle weighing so many tons and which operated for many hours on the edge of a cliff.
Then, the two young men gave a small “demonstration” of how the crane works to the OPEN camera, while their uncle, Michalis, praised the whole island for its help during those critical hours, with emphasis on the volunteers« contribution, who were, like him, on the spot, »of their own free will, without order or invitation".
