Families of victims of a deadly plane crash are reuniting to recall their memory more than six decades after the horrific incident.

They are relatives of 31 passengers and crew who were on a British European Airways flight from London to Malta on October 22, 1958.

Minutes before landing in Naples, where it was scheduled for a stopover, the Vickers Viscount aircraft was involved in a mid-air collision with an Italian air force jet, crashing into a small Italian fishing village and killing everyone on board.

Renders of the Vickers Viscount British European Airways aircraft (below) and the Italian F-86E jet. PHOTO: RORY O’GRADY.

Three of the passengers were Maltese citizens, returning home from England, while most of the others were travelling to Naples or Malta on business or vacation.

Rory O’ Grady, the brother of one of the cabin crew, managed to locate and establish contact with relatives of 27 of the 31 victims.

O’Grady went on to publish a book, The Flight of the Arctic Fox, detailing the lives of the victims and each family’s account of the tragedy. Families of the remaining three victims, however, are yet to be located.

One of these victims was Maltese Mary Vassallo La Rosa, thought to be from Ħamrun.

Another is Sheila Lane, a nursing sister serving at Bighi Hospital at the time, and who is buried at the Kalkara Naval Cemetery.

The one-in-a-million dramatic air crash dominated the news that week. Photo: Rory O’Grady

On that fateful day, 63 years ago, just before noon, flight BE142 started its descent above a small Italian town called Nettuno, when an Italian F-86E jet, carrying just the pilot, dived right down on top of the plane, sending it spiralling down to the ground in a fatal crash.

In a miraculous tale of survival, the force of the impact caused the ejection mechanism to catapult Giovanni Savorelli, the Italian pilot, clear of the wreckage.

His emergency parachute somehow opened, and he floated down to land in a tree close to the main debris.

He was seriously injured and spent many months in hospital, remembering nothing of the catastrophic collision.

Savorelli never flew again.

Those were really tough and tragic times

A newspaper at the time reported that among the debris were a number of baby chickens “which were uninjured and rushing about among the litter of suitcases, burst mailbags, piles of letters addressed to Malta, newspapers, air tickets, shoes, babies’ toys, and a red sash of the kind worn by bishops.”

“The chicks had fallen in a container from the height of 23,500 feet, the altitude at which the collision is believed to have occurred,” the report said.

All the bodies were recovered and identified, and British Airways authorities called in the families of the victims to break the news to them, one by one. 

The youngest victim was 19-year-old soldier and athlete Robert Chalmers.

Ian Chalmers died of acute leukemia just three months after his son’s death in the crash. PHOTO: RORY O’GRADY

He was serving with the Black Watch Regiment in Pertshire, Scotland, at the time and was on his way to spend a few days with his family who resided in Malta, before joining the regiment in Cyprus.

His parents, Ian and Margaret Chalmers, went to pick him up from the Luqa Airport that afternoon.

They waited for hours along with other families and friends of the passengers on board the flight, completely oblivious to the unfolding tragedy in Italy, until British European Airways staff called them in a private room to inform them that their son had perished in the terrible accident.

They went back home numb with shock, where Roderick, their younger, 11-year-old son was eagerly waiting for the return of his brother.

Passengers boarding the Vickers Viscount for a flight two years prior to the tragedy. PHOTO: RORY O’GRADY

“My big brother was my hero. I hadn’t seen him for some time, and I was looking forward to having him back home for a short visit,” Roderick told Times of Malta.

Robert Chalmers was buried in Ta’ Braxia Cemetery with full military honours.

Back then, Times of Malta had reported seven more passengers were scheduled to embark the aircraft in Naples for Malta.

They were lucky to have just missed the tragedy.

As for the Chalmers family, worse days were yet to come.

Just three months after his son’s death, Ian Chalmers was diagnosed with acute leukaemia and died shortly afterwards.

Times of Malta reports on the plane crash on October 23, 1958.

“Those were really tough and tragic times,” Roderick Chalmers recalled.

“My dear mother especially, my two sisters and I and all of the family lost so much in so little time. It was very, very difficult for all of us.”

Roderick Chalmers went on to become a successful chartered accountant and is a former Bank of Valletta chairman.

He recently collaborated with the author of the book in search for the victims’ relatives.

The author hopes the publication of the book will result in more information to emerge.