Sunday, 20th July 2008 - 08:16CET
AFM gives account of search for fishermen
Simon Bugeja being treated on the rescue helicopter.
The Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) has given a detailed account of its efforts to locate the fishinboat Simshar as soon as relatives of the crew reported it missing yesterday week.
The Simshar left Malta on Monday July 7 and had been due back last Friday week.
The AFM said its Operations' Centre initiated a communications search last Saturday evening at 7.35. Italian coast radio stations in the area were also requested to try to establish contact with the Maltese fishing vessel. An alert message was also broadcast to all shipping 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.
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 joined the search on Sunday and subsequent days. 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 today 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, counseling 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 2 a.m., 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: on Friday at around 4.40 p.m., while conducting a search in the area where the first corpse was recovered on Thursday, 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 corpse. It was subsequently ascertained that the corpse was of one of the other fishermen, Carmelo Bugeja, and it was brought to shore at Haywharf Base by P51 at 2.30 a.m. yesterday.
Later in the evening, at around 1955hrs, 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's 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 9.15 p.m. 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.
At 3.35 p.m. yesterday the Alhaden-3 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. The corpse was recovered by AFM patrol-boat P-52.
The search is continuing for Theo Bugeja 11 and an Ethiopian fisherman while the identity of the corpse is established.
RSS
Comments
My sympathy goes to all those who were hit directly by this tragedy.
what about the continous strange rumours in Mxlokk ? its true that same boat was involved in an accident some 3 weeks ago ?? a bit of mystery how an engine just blew up and within seconds dissapeard....let alone that top quality kind of vessel
true,...... but please!!! not that subject again
Let's keep praying for Theo return.
Infra red binoculars and other infra red equipment is even available on the internet and is used by many military personnel of different nations, including by S&R crews.
It is also used by television crews, so there is no lack of available sources.
Blow up a dark coloured balloon to the approximate size of a head and let it loose on the waves when there is a breeze blowing it away from you. I would be very surprised if you can still make it out from a distance of 30 metres. Meanwhile, if you so much as blink, locating it again is just a matter of luck. It is for this reason that, when a man goes overboard, a crew member is instantly assigned to keep pointing at him while the boat proceeds with the rescue operation; this improves the chances of keeping track when the head is momentarily obscured by waves.
Having myself been rescued many years ago, I can tell you that the deck of our catamaran, 37 feet long by 17 feet wide, seemed like a little match box from the deck of the small ship that took it in tow.
Be thankful when when someone is found, not critical when they are not!
Though I do not know the facts of this SAR mission, from what I read, it cannot be deemed to have been a succesful seach mission by our local army forces togther with the Italian, Tunisian and American forces that also helped.
I cannot understand how well equipped spotter aircraft from four countries with a pretty good idea of the location of the tragedy, failed to find anything at all for 8 solid days of searching. The survivor was found some 30 miles from where the tragedy took place, which though quite far away, with all those aircarft and many other military and fishing vessels on the surface also searching, could be easily covered daily.
This tragedy together with the recent ship-wreck off Gozo (with distress signal), need to be carefully looked at.
I'm not going to teach AFM the trick of the trade but I see something wrong in the technique they used.
Both the VMS (an apparatus providing the location of the vessel to the fisheries department) signal and satellite phone signal went dead on Thursday night, yet the communication search started on Saturday night, and the actual search on Sunday, more than 48 hours after the tragedy occured. Who is responsible for monitoring the VMS signal at the department, and why was no action taken by him/her?
As for the army i do not beleive that the other fishermen did not participate in the searches immediately on their own accord, this is simply something unbeleivable and several fihermen are stating that it was the army that "persuaded" them not to go at sea since they where searching (mistakenly) for a the vessel (Simon himself said that a helicopter passed twice above them and at close range but did not notice them) and any vessels in the area would hinder their operations!!!
All in all the fishermen (which were ultimately responsible for finding Simon alive) lost at least four days worth of searching.
A public enquiry should be held to seek out the responsabilities for this tragedy.
It seems that there is wrong priorities in the allocation of resources. Why have not most of the available patrol boats allocated to this task? The more eyes, the better. I do not know what the AFM operational priorities are, but we know what to expect. Simply put, if there are Maltese missing at sea, all the energy should be focused there, even if the rest of the whole world is drowning nearby, figuratively speaking, and stark choices have to be made.
Foreign navies and coast guards may help, but the main contribution in such cases should be given by Maltese. For no one will search better for his fellow countrymen. As we've seen, had it not been for the fishermen, I doubt whether the survivor would have been found alive.