Ten years ago, five French tourists died when they were caught in rough seas while returning aboard a tender boat to their yacht berthed in Dwejra, after a celebratory dinner in Xlendi.

It has now emerged that the investigation by the Marine Safety Investigation Unit concluded that the primary cause of the accident was “the swamping of the tender boat in adverse weather conditions”.

The report also lists other factors that may have influenced the dynamics of the events and these included that “the group lacked crucial local knowledge of the coast and its potential dangers”.

That night, the weather changed while the group was dining, but the visitors did not appreciate the risk they faced once they exited the sheltered Xlendi Bay and headed into open waters, where they were overtaken by strong winds and no radio signal.

This area is “notorious” among local seamen, the report noted, adding there was no clear role on board in terms of who was responsible for the safety of the passengers of the yacht El Pirata.

During the tragedy, all five people on board the boat died. These were yacht-owner Elias Chmouni, 49, and his wife, Sandrine Godet, 36, Dani, 14, Chmouni’s son from a previous marriage as well as Philippe Grimaud, 41, and his wife, Marie, 38.

The dinner was held to mark Chmouni’s birthday.

Chmouni and Godet left behind a five-month-old son, Simon, and a three-year-old daughter, Clara, who were staying with Godet’s father in Paris throughout the holiday week.

El Pirata sailed from Monastir, Tunisia, at about 5am on May 4, 2013, and arrived in Malta on Sunday, May 5, when, at about noon, it anchored in Dwejra Bay.

The Belgian-registered 60-foot yacht was skippered by Juan Carlo Montes, who had sold the boat to Chmouni the previous year. Chmouni had asked Montes to skipper the boat during the trip from Tunisia to Malta. Their next stop after Dwejra would have been Lampedusa.

The investigation report notes that the situation created a dynamic in which it was not made clear who was responsible for the safety of the passengers as Montes most likely limited his role to steering the vessel safely.

On the evening of May 5, Chmouni decided to celebrate his 49th birthday with dinner at The Boat House restaurant at Xlendi Bay, the next bay after Dwejra. All, except the skipper, went to dinner.

The sea was unbelievably calm.

Joseph Attard, owner of the restaurant, remembers the five French tourists.

“Of course, I remember them. They had said that they had come to our restaurant before. After the news spread about what happened, I remembered it was them,” said Attard, recalling that the skipper of the yacht had come to look for them the following morning.

Montes had told Times of Malta he suggested they berth the El Pirata at Mġarr Harbour and then catch a taxi to a restaurant.

“But he did not want to move the yacht, preferring to take the small boat instead to go to shore,” said Montes. “He insisted that I join them but I refused – I could not leave the cruiser unattended, out of sight.”

Sudden change in weather

The five set off towards land at about 8pm. “The sea was unbelievably calm at that time,” Montes had said.

Later that evening, there was a sudden change in weather. The Met Office in Luqa registered northwesterly winds reaching up to force six. Meanwhile, in Dwejra Bay, Montes weighed anchor, from midnight to 5am; he was constantly on the yacht’s stern trying to keep the El Pirata from crashing against the rocks.

At dawn, he felt he had enough light to leave Dwejra and seek the safety of Mġarr where he berthed at about 7am.

Meanwhile, he called Chmouni continuously. He also phoned the Gozo Marina and asked them to inform Chmouni, should he call, that the El Pirata was in Mġarr.

By Monday at 4.30pm, seeing that Chmouni had still not returned, he filed a report with the police that five people were missing. The search started soon after.

The bodies of Marie Grimaud and Godet were spotted on the evening of May 7 by Fomm ir-Riħ, where the capsized tender boat, two life jackets and other flotsam were found. The following morning, Chmouni’s body was found off Comino. The three bodies were flown to France for burial.

Autopsies later revealed they died of asphyxia from drowning.

An extensive search by the Armed Forces of Malta ensued but the bodies of the other two were never found.

The transport regulator had launched an investigation into safety issues. The report was concluded a year after the incident but was not immediately published.

A swamped tender

The report found that the main cause of the accident was that the tender boat was swamped after becoming completely exposed to the northwesterly weather conditions.

“The tender boat was a Boston Whaler-type dinghy with an approximate length of 4.1m and a beam of about 1.65m. Her depth was 0.5m. The hull of the tender boat was constructed of GRP, sandwiched in such a way that rendered it practically unsinkable. This tender boat, which is of a conventional type, is considered within the industry as a strong and seaworthy boat,” the report noted.

The tender boat was fitted with an Evinrude 50HP outboard engine, an aluminium propeller and an external fuel tank. It was estimated that, with the engine, fuel, equipment and five persons of average weight on board, the freeboard of the tender boat on that day would have been as low as 0.33.

The boat was found capsized on Tuesday evening. The starboard side was severely damaged, with entire sections missing. The nature of the damage indicated severe side impact against rocks.

“This damage could have happened immediately prior to the tender boat capsizing (and, therefore, while the five persons were still on board) but also during that period when the tender boat was adrift,” the report said.

It concluded that the tender boat was swamped somewhere along the stretch of water between Dwejra Bay and Xlendi Bay, possibly in the vicinity of Il-Pinnur tal-Wardija, after gradually becoming more exposed to the northwesterly weather conditions.

“Following the swamping, the tender boat and its occupants would have then drifted downwind and away from Xlendi Bay entrance to Fomm ir-Riħ. The time when the swamping happened remained an unknown factor,” the report noted.

As for the two lifejackets, the report said they were found close to the first two bodies. This meant that either the lifejackets were not donned, were not secured well and, consequently, slipped off, or else were taken off at some point after the group left Xlendi Bay.

No clear safety roles 

The report noted that the accident happened due to other safety factors. One was role ambiguity aboard El Pirata.

“In all probability, the skipper’s role on board El Pirata was limited to the safe navigation and manoeuvring of the pleasure yacht while the ‘overall’ safety role was not formalised as one would expect in the case of the role of a skipper as a result of the working context on board,” it said.

Secondly, although the local weather forecast was accurate and reliable, it was either not monitored carefully, misunderstood and underestimated or not monitored at all.

Before the departure from Dwejra Bay, the five occupants of the tender boat were not particularly concerned because the waves would not have yet built up. The deteriorating weather conditions did not deter the group to board the tender boat and leave the relative safety of Xlendi Bay.

“In particular, the point known as Il-Pinnur tal-Wardija is dangerous, especially in strong northwesterly winds…. In a northwesterly wind, which is the predominant wind in the Maltese archipelago, an outbound boat from Xlendi Bay heading to Dwejra Bay may initially experience a certain degree of shelter in the lee of the cliffs running in an East to West direction. However, when one approaches Il-Pinnur tal-Wardija, the sheltering effect of the cliffs will diminish until eventually one becomes entirely exposed to the full force of the wind and waves. Locals describe the point as notorious, where the sudden exposure to wind, combined with the depth of water, may give rise to unusually large and steep waves, which crash ferociously at the foot of the cliffs.

“While it is doubtful as to whether or not the person at the wheel of the tender boat was aware of the dangers of this part of the coastline, additionally and significantly, in this area and close to the cliffs, both VHF and mobile telephone reception are known to be either poor or erratic at best. This would have significantly reduced the possibility for the persons on board to call for help,” the report said.

Recommendations

The report stressed that the conclusions and recommendations “shall in no case create a presumption of blame or liability. Neither are they binding nor listed in any order of priority”.

In view of the conclusions reached following the analysis of all the available evidence, Transport Malta’s ports and yachting directorate was recommended to disseminate safety notices to the local and foreign yachtsmen who engage in coastal activities on the general characteristics of the coastline of the Maltese islands and potential hazardous areas, the quality of VHF and mobile network reception around the coast, the importance of life-saving equipment and basic navigational principles and seamanship practices.