Reportage
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Around fifty paratroopers based on site as well as a firefighter from Paris embarked for the Mahorais archipelago this Wednesday, December 18. Objective: clear and secure.
You have to be patient to board flight UU2274 towards Dzaoudzi, in Mayotte, 1,400 kilometers away. In the hall of Roland-Garros airport in Saint-Denis de la Réunion, around fifty uniformed soldiers are lining up to check in their two large bags per person. The flight is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. this Wednesday, October 18. A first plane left at noon with, among others, nursing staff. The one about to take off is one of the Air Austral aircraft requisitioned by the State. This is the sixth flight carried out by the company since the start of the airlift on Monday December 16.
It is impossible to know the precise mission of these soldiers. They don’t know it themselves or prefer not to say it. “We will know more on site,” one of them slips before cutting the conversation short. Their badge on the arm indicates that they belong to the 2nd RPIMA (marine infantry parachute regiment) based in Pierrefonds, in the south of Reunion. Are they called upon for their specificity as parachutists? Again, no comments.
“Route opening”
Check-in, go through security, pass through duty-free stores, mention “class: leisure” on the boarding pass: everything makes you think of a classic trip. The only detail that stands out: the flight is not announced on the information board.
