A former Air Malta executive has contested Richard Cachia Caruana’s recent comments over the airline’s controversial aircraft purchase in the 1990s.

Frans Camilleri, a former group head, insists the airline management tasked to negotiate the purchase of the Avroliner RJs were presented with a fait accompli.

The purchase left Air Malta with millions of euros in losses.

Mr Cachia Caruana was a board member at the time.

Writing in The Times today, Mr Camilleri says the negotiations were “vitiated”

“I was told in no uncertain terms by the executive chairman that the purchase price and financial conditions of the aircraft had been negotiated and were not subject to further negotiations.”

He said he was one of two management staff who had refused to sign a statement in favour of the purchase as requested by the chairman’s office.

The case of the Avroliners resurfaced in the controversy over backbencher Jeffrey Pullicino Orlando and his request for Mr Cachia Caruana’s expulsion from the Nationalist Party.