A memorial service, officiated by the Armed Forces of Malta chaplain, Fr. Lawrence Zammit, was held on Friday at the Pembroke Military Cemetery, in remembrance of the El Adem air force base crash in 1961.

It was attended by survivors, former colleagues and relatives of the victims, as well as various representatives of British ex-servicemen associations based in Malta.

On the evening of Tuesday, 10 October, 1961, a Royal Air Force Hastings aircraft, the WD498 crashed at the El Adem air force base in Libya, killing and injuring men of the Malta Fortress Squadron, Royal engineers. The Maltese sappers were working with 5001 Squadron.

Their bodies were flown back to Malta for burial, and the funeral took place on the Friday after the crash, at Pembroke Military cemetery for the following:

Captain Francis Joseph Boatwright; sergeant Emmanuel Falzon of Naxxar; lance-corporal Nazzareno Portelli of Hamrun; lance-corporal Emanuel Fsadni; sapper Francis Galia of Sliema; sapper Raphael Avallone of Sliema; sapper Salvatore Lia of Qormi; sapper Paul Cilia of Hamrun and sapper Carmelo Tabone of Birkirkara.

At the request of their families four men were buried in other cemeteries on the island.

Two men, warrant officer II Edwin H.Harrison of Sliema, and sapper Joseph Psaila of Hamrun, died of their injuries during the night of 11/12 October.

Three severely injured men were flown via Cyprus, to the Royal Air Force Hospital at Halton in the United Kingdom – sapper Nazzareno Busuttil of Hamrun who died of his injuries on 15 October, sapper Duca of Ghaxaq, and corporal Nazzareno Sammut of Qrendi, who died of his injuries on 31 October.