Only one electronic signal from the fishing boat Simshar was registered during its ill-fated journey, the AFM revealed yesterday as it announced that the 15-day search for Theo Bugeja, 11, has been called off.

The Vessel Monitoring System equipment aboard a fishing boat is meant to automatically transmit its position every two hours. However, Armed Forces of Malta (AFM) Commander Brigadier Carmel Vassallo revealed that the one signal, registered on Thursday, July 10 at around 8.15 p.m., was not an automatic one but was a response to being "pinged". This was after a relative of one of the crewmen asked the operators of the system in Malta, a private company, to try to locate the boat.

The Simshar was only reported overdue on Saturday the 12th by Simon Bugeja's wife, after which an AFM search got under way.

The only survivor of the tragedy, Simon Bugeja, reportedly told his rescuer Mark Bugeja, a fellow fisherman, that his boat caught fire on the afternoon of July 10 and sank a few hours later.

The last automatic signal from the boat had been sent the previous Saturday when the vessel was still in Marsaxlokk, his home port.

This information sheds new light on the AFM's search. It flies in the face of Marsaxlokk fishermen's contention that the alarm should have been raised when the fishing boat "stopped transmitting a signal" on that Thursday, indicating the boat was in distress.

Mr Bugeja's 61-year-old father Carmelo, Noel Carabott, 33, and Somali national Abdulrahman Abdala Gedi, 21, lost their lives, while Theo, Mr Bugeja's 11-year-old son, is still officially missing.

Yesterday it was learnt that the authorities have given clearance for the funerals to be held. Mr Carabott's is planned for tomorrow and Carmelo Bugeja's in the following days.

Simon Bugeja was found at sea on Friday the 18th in what has been described as "a reasonably lucid state". It was a week after the boat went off the radar screen.

During a press briefing yesterday, the Armed Forces said they got to know the Simshar's last known position on Sunday afternoon, the 13th, and adjusted their search according to the new information.

After that the Fisheries Division tried to ping a VMS signal at short intervals, once it was determined that the boat was equipped with the system. But there was no response.

Since the initial information did not indicate an explosion - something that Mr Bugeja spoke of when he was found - originally the AFM were looking for the boat or a life raft. And throughout the 80-odd hours of flying in search of the missing crew, the AFM did not come across any debris showing signs of an explosion.

The Armed Forces yesterday defended their search, which cost hundreds of thousands of euros. Brigadier Vassallo said it had been carried out responsibly, based on the information available. He reiterated that the search started straight after the boat was reported overdue on the evening of Saturday, July 12.

The AFM will be meeting the National Fisheries Cooperative tomorrow to discuss the matter.

Col Emanuel Mallia pointed out that larger ships are equipped with an Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon, which transmits a signal if a boat sinks, something that might help in similar cases.

The search by the AFM was supplemented by a search carried out by fishermen.

Apart from numerous fishing vessels scouring the sea for the missing boy, Charles Azzopardi, of Azzopardi Fisheries, leased a plane for the purpose. The search, by former Alitalia pilot Salvatore Demartino, was called off on Sunday after five days.

Speaking to The Times from his home in Naples, Captain Demartino described the atmosphere on the plane as "very emotional" with Simon's brother Marvin and another relative constantly talking about their loved ones.

"It was very emotional. Maybe the fact that we were looking for a child made it even more so. I'm a father too," he said.

Captain Demartino said that although the family wanted to continue looking for Theo, they too realised that the chances of finding the boy were extremely remote. A lot of time had passed since he was last seen by his father before the latter was rescued.