The Armed Forces of Malta airlifted a fish farm worker to hospital after he sustained head injuries on a boat 85 miles north-west of Malta early yesterday morning.

Slavolujub Yavanovic, 57, was working on the Egyptian-registered Abou Adam El Domiaty, one of the fish farm's service boats.

A rescue-helicopter from the Italian Military Mission in Malta was dispatched and AFM Air Wing rescuer Lance-Bombardier Derek Pepe was winched down to bring the casualty on board.

AFM principal medical officer Surgeon Lt Col Robert Galea administered emergency first aid to Mr Yavanovic, who was then flown to the Mater Dei Hospital.

The helicopter was flown by Lt Col Franco Trozzi and Sgt Oliver Bennett.

Parallel with this rescue operation, the AFM's operations centre was trying to track down the tugboat Finland, which lost contact with its owners two days ago.

An AFM spokesman said that using state-of-the-art software, the AFM was able to calculate the drift of the vessel, and another tugboat of the same parent company was dispatched to conduct a search in the estimated area of drift.

Eventually, the Finland was located in the Libyan Search-and-Rescue Region.