Updated 7.37pm - A court today heard about the active involvement of the Malta Community Chest Fund in the 2015 Paqpaqli car show in which several spectators were seriously injured when a car went out of control and crashed into the crowd along the second runway of Malta International Airport.
Driver Paul Bailey and 12 others were arraigned in court in June 2016 to face charges in connection with the crash at the charity event.
Martin Dalmas, head operations at Malta International Airport, said Lieutenant Brian Gatt, (former aide de camps to the President) had had talks with the MIA about the organisation of the event along with another of the organisers, Tonio Darmanin.
READ: 13 arraigned over Paqpaqli motorshow crash
A representative from Island Insurance Brokers testified that before 2010, Mr Tonio Darmanin used to approach them to issue insurance cover for the charity event. However, in 2010 the Malta Community Chest Fund joined in and was also involved in discussions regarding the insurance policy, with the expense being paid by the MCCF together with Paqpaqli Productions and other parties involved in the organization.
Jonathan Dingli, Director at KPMG, also testified on how the company had for several years been organizing a team of volunteers to assist in the charity event. Their role was to collect cash which was then forwarded to the MCCF. The Witness had been given instructions by Kevin Perry and Chris Sultana, two members from the organizing committee, whom he identified in court.
Asked whether he had contacted anyone from the office of the President, Mr Dingli said that his only contact with a representative from the President’s office was on the day of the event when someone called from time to time to take the funds collected.
Earlier today, the court was told that the public should have been almost 100m away from the high-speed run area during the event.
The head of Malta International Airport's security and former head of Civil Protection Department also explained that plastic, water-filed barriers, rather than concrete ones, were used at the event because they were easier to remove in case something went wrong on the principal runway and the second one needed to be used.
READ: 26 injured, five critically, as supercar crashes into crowd at Paqpaqli motorshow
Patrick Murgo told court that the crash barriers were not meant to protect the public but to avoid damage to aircraft and seal off the other operational runway at Malta International Airport.
Testifying this morning, he confirmed that a document presented during the magisterial inquiry did not constitute a safety plan for the October 2015 event.
Concrete barriers were used to protect a group of impounded aircraft
"The public should have been on the apron. The bollards... fixed barriers couldn't have been used because it would be made operational after the event. The barriers were there to ensure the security of the airport. Concrete barriers were used to protect a group of impounded aircraft and the water bollards for the area of aviation operations.”
The Paqpaqli organiser, under the auspices of the President of the Republic, also had a duty to provide adequate insurance cover as a condition to hold the event within the precincts of the airport, the chief security officer informed the court.
However, when asked by one of the defence lawyers, Mr Murgo said he could not recall whether this condition had been met.
Before the event there had been a number of meetings at MIA, but these focused on security not safety, he said. Cross-examined by lawyer Stefano Filletti, Mr Murgo said that the paddock area had temporarily ceased to be a restricted area and became a public place regulated by legal notice.
"The legal notice says that a zone is set out and declared as an area where the public may enter without security restrictions," the witness explained.
The upshot of this was that the area no longer fell under airport security during the events other than to protect MIA property.
“What happens... is that the management of the public area does not remain the airport's responsibility,” Mr Murgo explained.
Lawyer Giannella DeMarco asked whether there was a distinction between private land made open to the public and restricted access area in which the public was temporarily allowed.
“When you have land given to organisers for such an event, the event managers must not interfere with the operations of the airport, but the airport management must not interfere with the event.”
Asked whether the police and the Civil Protection Department had met with him to discuss risk, or compile risk assessments vis-a-vis the activity, Mr Murgo replied that he had never met to discuss such matters. His meetings had been limited to safety and security of the airport and passengers.