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Karl Schembri
The Armed Forces of Malta is pointing at the failure of its “computer-aided search planning tools” in justifying its decision to prematurely abort last week’s attempted rescue mission of some 100 immigrants who were missing at sea.
The mission was aborted by the AFM on Friday 16 April at 2pm after a 17-hour search in extreme weather conditions, but an Italian military plane spotted the boat 30 miles off Lampedusa nine hours later – miles away from the area predicted by the AFM.
The AFM came in for criticism in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera which claimed the Maltese army gave up too early.
The sighting and rescue of the immigrants by foreign rescue forces have led many to question why the AFM was so hasty in giving up its operations when so many lives were involved.
Just when the AFM had announced it was suspending its search, AFM Captain Andrew Mallia told BBC: “It’s improbable anyone has survived.”
The AFM said in a statement later that “the extreme weather conditions in the area, as well as the absolute lack of significant sightings of the boat itself or any part thereof were taken into account when the decision was taken to suspend search activities. All search activities were undertaken in an area of probability indicated through the use of the AFM’s computer-aided search planning tools. These tools, which have proved their effectiveness countless times in the past, operate using internationally-approved methods. It must be understood, however, that no planning tool can provide a 100 percent reliable solution.”
AFM Commander Brig. Carmel Vassallo told MaltaToday that the AFM had based its assessment “on the available information,” taking “all possible factors into account.”
“The factors affecting survivability are various and, obviously, include the weather conditions and the sea temperature,” he said. He added that the AFM kept relaying a message to all ships sailing in the area after it suspended the search, urging them to keep a sharp look-out for the boat. Other foreign search aircraft continued the operation, with some of them landing in Malta for technical stops.
The AFM said it was studying “to see what lessons could be extracted,” from the incident, while also hoping to ascertain why the boat was eventually found at a considerable distance outside the predicted search area.
Meanwhile Labour MP Adrian Vassallo called for an inquiry.
“The lesson was that the AFM had ridiculed itself and Malta,” he said, referring to the AFM’s statement. He said a full inquiry was needed to establish if there was negligence and who was responsible for it.
“This is no small matter since the life of nearly 100 people was involved,” he said.
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