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Search for missing boy continues on eighth day
By MaltaMedia News
Jul 21, 2008 - 4:38:50 PM
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The search for the 11 year-old boy who was aboard the Simshar, the fishing vessel which went missing over a week ago, has now entered its eight day and the Armed Forces of Malta are continuing their efforts to find him.
On Monday, a helicopter of the Italian Military Mission and an AFM patrol boat are in the search area along with a number of Maltese fishing vessels.
The Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) have expressed their appreciation for the support afforded to them so far in connection with the search for the Maltese fishing vessel SIMSHAR. The Italian, Libyan, Tunisian and United States authorities, as well as the Italian Military Mission in Malta and several Maltese fishing vessels have all contributed in a substantial and coordinated way towards this operation. This concerted effort continues.
In its statement on Monday, the AFM reiterated its position that its Operations’ Centre at Luqa Barracks was notified by a relative of one the crew members of the fishing-vessel SIMSHAR on Saturday 12th July, at 1920hours and not prior to this stated date and time. Consequently, no searches could have been conducted before that.
Concerning the initial efforts by the Armed Forces of Malta, the AFM be stated that on receipt of the information, the AFM’s actions were immediate, practically within minutes of being alerted of the fishing-boat being overdue to its home-berth. AFM Operations’ Centre staff adhered to standard international procedures by initiating a communications search which included, at the AFM’s request, repeated calls by Palermo Radio, Lampedusa Radio and Malta Radio.. A PAN-PAN message, which is a voice procedure giving a description of the incident in question, was also sent out on merchant vessel frequencies at regular intervals. Other repeated calls continued by Malta Radio to SIMSHAR.
Furthermore, the AFM P-51 patrol boat, returning from an illegal migrants’ incident close to Lampedusa was informed of this overdue vessel, and instructed to keep a lookout for it. Also, an AFM aircraft which was on coastal patrol was also alerted to keep a sharp look-out for the overdue vessel.
Concurrent to all these ongoing efforts, contacts were made at various levels between Maltese, Libyan, Tunisian and Italian authorities to verify if this vessel had for any reason entered their ports. Meanwhile enquiries with relatives were on-going. Acting on the information that they were receiving, the AFM can safely say that they left no stone unturned in the efforts that were being undertaken to locate the overdue vessel or its survivors.
The AFM said that, “contrary to what was alleged yesterday, the AFM did not preclude any fishing vessel from setting sail to search for the overdue boat. In fact, both relatives and representatives of the Fisheries Co-operative’s were separately invited to the AFM Headquarters and briefed on the conduct of the search operation. Discussions concerning the probable area of drift where likely contact could be made with the SIMSHAR were also held. Consequently, the fishing vessels as a matter of fact searched in the indicated area.”
© Copyright 2008 by MaltaMedia.com
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Latest update:
Jul 24, 2008 - 9:19:28 AM CET
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