Unless an aircraft was allowed to resume “normal” humanitarian flights by the end of the week, judicial proceedings would be instituted against the government, an NGO has warned.
In a letter to the Civil Aviation Directorate, copied to the Transport Ministry and the Prime Minister, the operators of the aircraft Moonbird said they were “suffering damages” because of the authorities’ reluctance to allow the spotter plane to fly within the Libyan flight information region.
Read: Malta blocks humanitarian aircraft
The migrants rescue aircraft has not been allowed to fly since the end of May but the government only confirmed it had blocked operations in July. The decision, the plane’s operators claimed, resulted in the death of hundreds of people at sea and made their operations redundant.
The aircraft is operated by NGO Sea Watch and the Swiss Humanitarian Pilots Initiative, supported by the Evangelische Kirche in Germany.
The decision resulted in the death of hundreds of people at sea and made their operations redundant
In the letter to the authorities, lawyers Malcolm Mifsud and Catherine Mifsud said the NGOs had been informed via e-mail in May they were denied permission to fly the plane in Libya’s flight information region.
“Our clients were not granted any reason or the legal basis as to why this decision has been taken and, until today, the authority has remained in default,” the lawyers said.
Civil Aviation Directorate head Charles Pace and the head of aeronautical affairs, Josephine Farrugia, also failed to say what motivated the decision during a meeting with the operators, they added.
“In that meeting, the authority was called upon to provide reasons for the decision, however, no reasons were divulged and any comments put forth by the representatives of the authority were not backed up by any applicable legal provisions or were not factually sound,” the lawyers continued.
The Humanitarian Pilots Initiative said it was informed the government was only making such decision in its regard, thus discriminating against it. The NGO said it has been carrying out humanitarian flights for over a year, always operating the aircraft in accordance with the applicable legislation.
The plane’s pilots always maintained contact with air traffic control and the aircraft never flew over Libyan territory, contrary to what was alleged during a meeting, the lawyers said.
“The case of Moonbird shows that Malta not only shuts off sea rescue but also wants to hide the disastrous consequences of this blockade from the eyes of the world,” the NGO charged in a statement.
Asked whether the authorities planned to allow the aircraft to resume normal operations, a Transport Ministry spokeswoman said search and rescue services were provided by the Armed Forces of Malta with the collaboration of the Civil Aviation Directorate, in line with the Malta Aeronautical Information Publication.
“Moonbird continued to ask on various occasions to still fly into Libyan airspace through the Maltese airspace, a request the Maltese authorities cannot accede to,” she said.
She insisted the plane was never grounded since it was allowed to fly, provided it avoided the Libyan flight information region.