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From MaltaMedia.com Local The “Simshar” was reported overdue by relatives last Saturday evening. The vessel had five persons onboard, and had left Malta on Monday July 7th. The 12-metre vessel was expected back to port that following Friday evening and had onboard its owner Simon Bugeja, his 11-year-old son Theo and his father Carmelo, Noel Carabott and an East African national. The Operations’ Centre of the AFM at Luqa Barracks had initiated a communications search on Saturday 12th July in the evening at 19:35CET, minutes after a family member had alerted the AFM about the overdue vessel. Italian coast radio stations in the area were also requested to try to establish contact with the Maltese fishing-vessel. A Pan Pan message was also broadcast. Meanwhile, an AFM aircraft which at the time was on coastal patrol and a patrol boat which was returning to Malta following an illegal immigrants’ incident were alerted to keep a sharp look-out for the overdue fishing vessel. As attempts to contact the “Simshar” by means of VHF-marine and satellite-telephone continued to be fruitless, the AFM Air Wing’s Islander aircraft conducted a number of searches throughout Sunday, covering approximately 3,900 square nautical miles. The search for the “Simshar” saw on its second and third day the involvement of Italian Air Force AB212 helicopters from the Italian Military Mission (IMM) in Malta, a Tunisian search-helicopter, as well as Sigonella-based Italian Navy ‘Atlantique’ and US Navy 6th Fleet ‘P3-Orion’ aircraft in addition to the AFM’s air assets’ own efforts. No sightings were reported by this time. Both Libyan and Tunisian authorities were also requested to conduct enquiries at their respective ends if a Maltese fishing-vessel had entered one of their ports. The search for the vessel had concentrated in the area between Malta and Lampedusa, and fishermen from Marsaxlokk also helped in the search operations. In this regard, the AFM denies certain reports in the local media aired on Saturday that it had restrained such search efforts by the local fishing-vessels. Operations’ Centre staff, as a matter of fact, provided all navigational and likely sea-current and drift information to the Maltese fishermen involved, counselling them where best to conduct their surface searches. Given the 500-foot separation spacing between the various air assets involved, the fishermen were advised by the AFM not to act on their intent to hire out a private aircraft to assist in the search. On Thursday at 02:00CET, the corpse of one of the fishing-vessel’s crew members, Noel Carabott, 33, from Marsaxlokk, was found some 60 nautical miles southwest of Malta by the fishing-vessel Laura-2, and was later brought ashore by a Maritime Squadron patrol-boat after a mid-sea transfer. The search for the missing vessel continued in full force when on Friday at around 1640hrs, while conducting a search in the area where the first corpse had been recovered, an Italian Air Force AB212-helicopter of the IMM sighted a second corpse in a position 62 nautical miles south-west off Malta. The AFM's Protector-class patrol-craft P51 was immediately dispatched on site, as a local fishing-vessel which was already in the area - the ‘Madonna tal-Karmnu’, was directed to approach the spotted corpse. It was subsequently ascertained that the corpse was of one of the other fishermen, Carmelo Bugeja, and was brought to shore at Haywharf Base by P51 at around 02:30CET late in the night. Later in the evening, at around 19:55CET the AFM Operations Centre was informed by another fishing vessel - the ‘Grecale’, which was conducting a search to the southwest of Malta where two corpses had been found earlier, that “Simshar” owner Simon Bugeja was found alive and had been recovered on board. After the AFM patrol boat P-51 reached the fishing-vessel, the casualty was winched at 21:15CET onto an Italian Air Force AB212 rescue-helicopter that had been dispatched to the Grecale’s location to evacuate Mr. Bugeja to Mater Dei Hospital. On Friday evening as well, whilst the AFM was conducting the coordination of its assets for the recovery operations, initial live news service reports by some sections of the media incorrectly stated that the missing young boy had also been located. The AFM clarifies that at no point was there any official communication with the local media that a second person was recovered from the sea, as prematurely reported in some sections of the media. The search for the other missing fishermen continued on Saturday. Two search missions were conducted by the locally-based Italian Air Force AB-212 helicopters, with no results. However, at 15:35CET fishing-vessel Alhaden-3 reported to the AFM Operations’ Centre that it had encountered a severely decomposed corpse of a foreign national in a position 63.4 nautical miles from Malta, and barely 2.4 nautical miles, due west from where the corpse of Carmelo Bugeja was retrieved. AFM patrol-boat P-52 proceeded to the location to investigate further and recover the reported corpse. © Copyright 2008 by MaltaMedia.com |
The Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) are still currently searching for the remaining missing persons that were onboard the Maltese-registered fishing-vessel “Simshar”, AFM said in a statement.