The vessel was spotted by an Armed Forces search and rescue plane at around 11.30am yesterday, a few miles away from the coordinates given by the Turkish tanker Trader. The Trader’s captain had lodged the first SOS report at 8.30pm on Saturday evening, when he informed the AFM control tower that a boat, with 10 passengers on board, had overturned while heading in their direction, some 12 miles east of the island.

The AFM control tower immediately dispatched a search and rescue boat, along with another two patrol boats, on Saturday evening. However, operations had to be suspended prematurely due to the prevailing weather conditions and poor visibility. Two Italian Navy aircraft, a patrol plane and a helicopter stationed in Malta also attempted to carry out a search but had to withdraw after a short while.

The last information given by the AFM yesterday evening was that nobody had yet been spotted and operations were being suspended until the following morning. The bad weather conditions and the low water temperature make the chances of finding any survivors very bleak, TMID was told.

The story hit the international headlines and was even reported by the Associated Press.