[attach id=462279 size="medium"]The tragedy as reported by the Times of Malta on October 15, 1975.[/attach]

Forty years from one of Malta’s worst peacetime aviation tragedies, survivors and historians will recount this experience in a short documentary about the crash of a Royal Air Force bomber on Żabbar.

On October 14, 1975, five of the seven-man crew of a RAF Vulcan and a woman who was walking up Sanctuary Street around lunchtime perished when the aircraft exploded in mid-air as it was preparing to land.

While two members of the crew managed to eject safely and descended by parachute, the plane came down in three large parts. Fortunately, hundreds of children were spared and no casualties reported when part of the undercarriage and some engine components fell on the primary school grounds.

In total 20 people were injured, including an eight-year-old boy, Kevin Falzon, who sustained grievous injuries after being hit by a falling fragment.

Mr Falzon will be among those looking back at this tragedy in a short 15-minute documentary which is being produced by the Żabbar local council. The producers also interviewed Dr Josie Muscat, who rushed to the scene to administer first aid to the injured.

Local councillor Mark Grech, who was behind this initiative, said that the aim was to raise awareness in the upcoming generations of this major event in the locality’s history.

The documentary, which includes historic footage from the PBS archives, will be aired this evening at 7pm at the Żabbar Sanctuary Museum, which hosts a permanent exhibition on the Vulcan tragedy.

The documentary will be screened for the public next Saturday at 7.30pm and Sunday at 6.30pm.