Missing fishermen found
Barely 24 hours had passed since the rescue of a 55-year-old fisherman Paul Gauci that the AFM did not have to rescue another two men who were lost at sea while on their speedboat. George Degiorgio, 40, of St Paul's Bay and Frans Formosa, 33, of...
Barely 24 hours had passed since the rescue of a 55-year-old fisherman Paul Gauci that the AFM did not have to rescue another two men who were lost at sea while on their speedboat.
George Degiorgio, 40, of St Paul's Bay and Frans Formosa, 33, of Birkirkara were reported overdue by their families late on Friday after having set to sea at about noon on board a 20-foot speedboat.
A search was launched immediately involving two AFM seacraft and an Islander aircraft.
The AFM said the speedboat was sighted by an Italian fishing vessel, Salvatore Scala, around 40 miles to the north east of Malta at 8.27 a.m. yesterday.
The Islander aircraft and patrol boat P24 were immediately dispatched to the site. The speedboat was taken to St Paul's Bay.
On Thursday, Mr Gauci was spotted 60 nautical miles south east of Delimara by a US Navy Orion P3 which was helping in an AFM search for him. The man had been missing on his kajjik since Monday.
In a statement the AFM once again reminded all seafaring persons about the importance of having proper navigation and communications equipment such as VHF radio when going out to sea.