Port workers walk past the three-masted ARA Libertad, a symbol of Argentina's navy, as it lies docked at the port in Tema, outside Accra, Ghana, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012. Argentina has hired an Air France charter to fly nearly 300 navy cadets home from Ghana after failing to persuade the government there to reverse the seizure of its tall ship. Argentina said Monday that 281 crew members from Argentina and a half-dozen other countries will fly to Buenos Aires on Wednesday, leaving the captain with a skeleton crew to maintain the ship at port in Ghana.(AP Photo/Gabriela Barnuevo)
Ghana: Argentine sailors board plane to fly home
Port workers walk past the three-masted ARA Libertad, a symbol of Argentina's navy, as it lies docked at the port in Tema, outside Accra, Ghana, Tuesday, Oct. 23, 2012. Argentina has hired an Air France charter to fly nearly 300 navy cadets home from Ghana after failing to persuade the government there to reverse the seizure of its tall ship. Argentina said Monday that 281 crew members from Argentina and a half-dozen other countries will fly to Buenos Aires on Wednesday, leaving the captain with a skeleton crew to maintain the ship at port in Ghana.(AP Photo/Gabriela Barnuevo)
By FRANCIS KOKUTSE
Associated Press /
October 24, 2012
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ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — More than 280 crew of the Argentine naval sailing ship, Libertad, have boarded an Air France plane to take them home.
The sailors have been in Accra since Oct. 2 after a Ghana court ruled to keep the Libertad at Tema Port following an order served by a United States investment group NML.
Argentina chartered the plane to fly the crew home after failing to persuade the government to release the three-masted tall ship.
The Libertad is worth about $20 million, according to investors who persuaded the courts in Ghana seize the vessel for nonpayment of bonds that Argentina defaulted on during its devastating financial crisis more than a decade ago.
The ship’s captain and a skeleton crew will stay behind to maintain the ship at port in Ghana.
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