Plane crash tragedy recalled

A plane crash which cost the lives of 15 Maltese servicemen was recalled today with Mass followed by wreath-laying at Pembroke Military Cemetery.

Two British servicemen also died when a Hasting transport aircraft broke in half and burst into flames as it was taking off from the El Adem in Libya on a flight to Malta on October 10, 1961.

22 soldiers survived, although several were badly injured.

The Maltese soldiers were serving in the British army and were returning to Malta after having been involved in the building of a road with the Royal Engineers.

This morning's commemoration was held by the Royal Engineers Association - Malta and was attended by relatives of the victims, serving and ex-servicemen.The crash was the biggest single loss of Maltese men in uniform in peace time.

The wreath-laying ceremony was led by Lt Col (Retired) Raymond Cutajar who told timesofmalta.com that the troop had been selected to fly to Malta that day with the toss of a coin. He was in another troop which was to follow in the same aircraft the day after.

"We were all eager to return to Malta as soon as possible. The issue was decided with the toss of a coin, he said. He praised the members of the first troop saying they had worked very hard in temperatures of 105F.

"We were some 15 miles away from the airport. I can never forget the moment when an officer turned up and told me not to wake the men because our early morning flight had been postponed. We are later given a list of those who had perished, those who were injured and those who had survived," he said.