Sailing past the Pembroke shooting range last Wednesday afternoon, a couple had a close brush with death when a 7.62 calibre bullet passed through the stainless steel frame of a porthole, just 18 inches away from where one of the passengers was seated on deck at portside.
Dave Arnie, the owner of the 32-foot SY “Mistress Elusive”, told MaltaToday that while he motored at a speed of about three knots a three-quarter mile off a red flag notifying the shooting range’s positioning Wednesday, “bullets were being fired towards us, some hitting the sea and another passing right through the porthole. I immediately called Valletta Port Control, who asked us to report the incident to the police, seeing that nobody got hurt. I decided to call the Armed Forces instead, who took the matter very seriously.”
The couple then berthed at St Paul’s Bay, where they found army and police officials waiting for them.
“I have no idea what happened,” Arnie said. “All I know is that the bullet hit us less than two feet off my partner’s head. A magisterial inquiry has been ordered, now we’ll see what comes out of it. But still, what if someone rents out a jet-ski from St George’s Bay and passes by the area? Will they know what a red flag is in the first place? Will they be aware of any notices to mariners?”
Commenting on the incident, a UK infantry expert said: “If the boat had just passed the flag, it should still have been within a very wide safety margin. There is a range officer at every shooting practice. It is his job to ensure that there is no danger to the front and sides of the range. Every shooter has the obligation to stop the shooting practice if he sees any dangers. There will have had to be sentries that are positioned on the edges of each range that are in direct radio contact with the firing point officer to stop the shooting practice if any danger is alerted.”
Although reports claimed that the bullet was shot from a Kalashnikov rifle, the infantry source said: “I doubt this was an AK-47 round, which has a short-round, meaning that the cartridge would be small and would not have a lot of propellant. To hit a target as far as one-mile distance, it would in this case mean that the firer would have to aim at around the top to three-quarters of the way down from the boat’s mast to hit the boat where it did. From a rifle range, the trajectory would have sent the bullet into the sea some 300 to 500 metres off shore. The shooter is probably at 200 to 300 metres away from the target to do his practice hence about 1.8km away from the boat. I think the hit came from a 7.62 long round that gets fired from an FN or SLR which I think the Maltese have, or maybe from a general purpose machine gun.”
Meanwhile, Arnie claims that three other boats were sailing behind them at the time of the incident, which quickly turned to starboard and sailed away as soon as the shooting started.

ddarmanin@mediatoday.com.mt