The Armed Forces, the butt of criticism about their efforts in the search for five fishermen whose boat is now known to have blown up, said yesterday they were continuing with their efforts to find the one person still missing: 11-year-old Theo Bugeja.

There can hardly be any hope of finding the boy alive, now. Theo’s father, Simon, was the only survivor. The other three died one after the other before the first corpse was found.

An Italian Military Mission helicopter and an AFM patrol boat were yesterday in the search area, with Maltese fishing craft which are also involved in the search. The AFM has been criticised for not deploying its patrol boats in the search from the start, though these were heavily involved in rescuing irregular migrants.

The AFM expressed appreciation for support afforded in the search by the Italian, Libyan, Tunisian and US authorities.

The AFM said its Operations Centre at Luqa Barracks was notified by a relative of one of the crew members of the fishing vessel Simshar, of the vessel being overdue, on Saturday, 12 July, at 7.20pm. Consequently, no searches could be conducted before that.

“Concerning the initial efforts by the Armed Forces of Malta, it must be stated that on receipt of the information, the AFM’s actions were immediate, practically within minutes of being alerted of the fishing-boat being overdue at its home-berth,” the AFM said.

“AFM Operations Centre staff adhered to standard international procedures by initiating a communications search which included, at the AFM’s request, repeated calls by Palermo Radio, Lampedusa Radio and Malta Radio. A PAN-PAN message, which is a voice procedure giving a description of the incident in question, was also sent out on merchant vessel frequencies at regular intervals. Other repeated calls continued by Malta Radio to Simshar.”

The AFM’s P-51 patrol boat, returning from an irregular migrants’

incident close to Lampedusa was informed of this overdue vessel, and “instructed to keep a lookout for it”. An AFM aircraft which was on coastal patrol was also alerted to keep a sharp look-out for the overdue vessel.

Contacts were made at various levels between Maltese, Libyan, Tunisian and Italian authorities to verify if the Simshar had for any reason entered their ports. Meanwhile enquiries with relatives were on-going. Acting on the information that they were receiving, “the AFM can safely say that they left no stone unturned in the efforts that were being undertaken to locate the overdue vessel or its survivors.”