The condition of the 25-year-old man and 16-year-old girl who fell off a four-storey high cliff in Baħrija on Saturday night has stabilised but they remain in intensive care.
David Attard, from Dingli, and Jessica Borg, from Qormi, were in critical condition when they were flown to hospital in the early hours of Sunday morning.
They had been in the company of friends when they decided to take a walk along the cliffs known as Il-Blata tal-Melħ.
Shortly afterwards their friends heard them screaming for help and ran to their assistance, sources said. They found them lying at the bottom of the cliffs and, after the initial shock had worn off, dialled the emergency number.
Mr Attard's 91-year-old grandmother, Vittoria, was last night anxiously tuning in to radio news bulletins in the hope of garnering some more information on their condition.
"He was such a healthy young man and so capable in what he did. He was always happy and positive about life. All we can do is pray for them," she said when contacted last night.
Mrs Attard said her grandson, whose parents also live in Dingli, slept at her house every night to keep a watchful eye on her and keep her company. Every morning they would chat while he guzzled down some tea and left at 6 a.m. for work with a construction company.
She believed the young man was familiar with the area where the incident took place but she was unable to say if Jessica was his girlfriend: "You know youngsters these days; they're very secretive about these things."
The police said they were informed about the accident at about 11.30 p.m. and immediately drove to the cliffs together with paramedics from Mater Dei Hospital and firemen from the Civil Protection Department.
But because of the land's topography they could not safely recover Mr Attard and Ms Borg and called the army in for its assistance.
However, although the army said it was contacted at about 00.50 a.m., sources said a military helicopter only took to the sky at about 2.20 a.m.
They said the Armed Forces of Malta's helicopters could not be used in such conditions and the Italian Military Mission (IMM) had to use one of its own.
But, they continued, IMM pilots do not spend the night at its hanger as the AFM's do and had to have their night's sleep cut short and ordered to drive to the hanger.
Meanwhile, three painful hours after they fell, Mr Attard was still conscious but in agony while Jessica was only partly conscious. In fact, sources said she was given priority and airlifted to hospital at about 2.50 a.m.
The helicopter then doubled back and winched Mr Attard aboard at about 3.10 a.m. They were both critically injured and their condition reportedly worsened throughout the day.
How they fell down the cliffs remains unclear although the police said they were allegedly walking along the edge, which they did not see because of the darkness.