“I was injured like seven of my comrades”, testifies Philippe Bardelli, former member of the GIGN

In the middle of the end-of-year celebrations, Philippe Bardelli, former member of the GIGN, had to leave his family to participate in the GIGN operation concerning the hostage-taking of the Algiers-Paris flight on December 26, 1994. “I was injured like seven of my comrades out of the eight gendarmes of the GIGN (…) one of the members announced the throwing of a grenade by the terrorists, we went down to avoid the explosion, at the moment where I go back up (…) I am attacked, we have a terrorist five meters away who shoots at me and I am injured in the hand I don’t know it’s on my weapon, I will find out later. since it was snatched from my hands”says the guest.

After quickly seeing a doctor, the man leaves towards the plane with his second weapon. Once inside the plane, “There’s shooting, there’s a lot of shooting on the terrorists’ side and we return fire for almost 20 minutes”details Philippe Bardelli.

Watch the full interview in the video above