The scene will remain imprinted in one man’s mind forever: a young mother desperately holding her baby out of the window of a sinking car before it disappeared into the murky water of Grand Harbour.

It was 21 years ago today, during the 2001 Freedom Day Regatta, that Josianne Cesare, 20, and baby Jean Luca drowned after the car they were sitting in plunged into the sea.

I was banging on the door and telling her to let the baby go- Joseph Scerri

Joseph Scerri was mere inches away from reaching the child.

“I will never forget it. I was swimming right under the car window and she held the child out of the driver’s window. I think she didn’t see us there.

“I was banging on the door and telling her to let the baby go. I did not want to grab onto the car for fear of pushing it down. She was screaming: ‘Take him, take him’,” he says, his eyes welling up even two decades later.

“Then, sadly, she pulled the baby back in. And suddenly, within seconds, the car got swallowed up by the water. It was like dropping lead into the sea.”

Sitting at a cafe in Cospicua, Scerri (known as Pele) and his friends Pierre Bugeja and Alan Harvey, look on at the quay where it all happened – the tragedy that shook the entire island and deeply changed the three men’s view on life.

Cesare and her 18-month-old baby were in a parked Ford Anglia by the sea at Xatt ir-Risq as her husband John Paul Cesare went off to buy some food.

In the blink of an eye, the car rolled into the sea, later found to have a faulty handbrake.

The woman could not swim. The child was certified dead on the day and she died two days later in hospital.

In 2007, her husband was conditionally discharged for two years after he was found guilty of involuntarily causing their death through negligence.

The magistrate concluded that he had suffered a big loss with the death of his wife and son and that a jail term would be too heavy a price to pay.

‘We tried everything’

The three friends were among those who tried to save the mother and baby. They knew one another as they were all involved in the Good Friday passion play.

That year, the play was Tamara, centred on a Bible story told by Jairus, the father of Tamara, who fails to wake up in the morning but is brought back to life by Jesus. The first performance was set for that evening.

At about 3pm, they were on the quay watching the regatta.

“I saw the Anglia arrive. I recognised Josianne because I know her family and I saw that she had a child,” Scerri recalled.

“He parked and I saw him get out of the car. The races had already started. I was walking towards Vittoriosa, a few metres away from the car when I suddenly heard a lot of commotion.

“I turned to see the Anglia half on the quay and half out – swinging. Suddenly, it fell in. I could not resist. I jumped in. It was instinct.”

Meanwhile, Bugeja, who was talking to friends nearby, also saw what was happening. He and Harvey jumped in to help, along with others.

The car remained afloat for a few seconds. Scerri was in the sea on the driver’s side, swimming alongside the car and trying to keep up with it as it moved forward while it sank.

Cesare, who was sitting in the driver’s seat, held the child out of the driver’s window while Joseph and others shouted for her to let him go. But she pulled him in just before it sank.

“I’ve reflected about this a lot,” said Bugeja.

“Maybe she pulled him in because the car was sucked down. But maybe it was because, even though she wanted to give him to us, the mother’s instinct is to keep a child close to her.”

As the car went down, the men dived.

“We could not see anything. The sea there is very dark and full of sediment and, when the car went down, it unsettled the sediment and made it impossible to see,” Bugeja recalled.

They kept coming up for air and diving, refusing to give up.

Running out of time

“I threw up the ice-cream I had just eaten... we tried everything,” Scerri said.

At one point the pushchair floated back to the surface. The men knew they were running out of time.

They asked the growing crowd on the quay for tools such as a pipe so they could breathe underwater and a mallet to smash the window in case they found the car.

They just could not find the car and they later realised why. The seabed was sloping so it had moved outwards – and they were looking in the wrong place.

The men were in the sea until a patrol boat arrived and a diver brought up the woman and child and took them to an ambulance. About 18 minutes had passed.

‘Every year we remember’

As they climbed out of the sea, the gravity of what had just happened hit them hard. Shivering with the cold, Scerri headed to the regatta club to have a warm shower.

Bugeja collapsed after taking a few steps.

“I could hear everything but I could not see anything.”

Harvey noticed that Bugeja was shivering violently. As a former AFM officer, he realised his friend was suffering from hypothermia.

“I removed our clothes and hugged him to give him my body heat. Then they brought blankets,” Harvey said.

Bugeja threw up in the car on the way to Paola health centre.

“I’ll never forget... it was tortellini,” Harvey said as he looked at his friend who thanked him for his timely intervention.

'I may not have lived'

“I was later told that, had it not been for Alan, I may not have lived,” Bugeja said.

At the health centre, Bujega was placed on a bed and Harvey was by his side: “It was the worse scene I’ve ever seen.

“When Pierre was being given medical assistance, the woman and the baby were near us. They were giving them shocks to resuscitate them.”

Bugeja had to be rushed to hospital. He recalled: “In the ambulance I heard them tell the driver to drive fast or they would lose me. I felt the cold parts of the medical tools they were using on my chest... I was scared.”

Something like this makes you cherish your children more than ever- Joseph Scerri

Treated for hypothermia and shock, he calmed down and his vision returned.

That evening, Harvey went to the passion play. “It was the hardest play ever. I did not know if my friend was alive or dead,” he said.

Bugeja was to play the role of Jairus but that night someone else filled in for him.

The regatta of 2001 was an experience they have not managed to shake off.

“Every year, we remember what happened,” Harvey said.

“Something like this makes you cherish your children more than ever,” said Scerri, before adding:

“We tried all we could. We really tried. It was a scene that stayed with us for a long time.

“What we saw that day does not leave your mind.”