President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca laid a wreath an Pembroke Military Cemetery today to recall the anniversary of one of the biggest peacetime loss of life by Maltese servicemen.

Fifteen Maltese and two Britons died when a Royal Air Force 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 servicemen had been working with the Royal Engineers on a road-building project. 

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20111010/local/El-Adem-Fateful-toss-of-a-coin.388434

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.