The mystery of 9H-ABU
The Search For My Missing Son
In December 95 my son Desmond was working in Libya, he was employed by a UK company Maple Inspection Services of Darlington . We had anticipated Desmond’s return home on 13 December for the Christmas holiday period. At 5 pm on the 3rd of December I received a phone call from my daughter -in -law Mandy, The local police had called to relay a message from Maple HQ in Darlington as follows - The aircraft on which my son and four other passengers were travelling from Djerba in Tunisia to Malta was overdue and there was now serious cause for concern
It is difficult to convey the feelings of shock and despair which one experiences upon receipt of information of this nature, the trauma of conveying the news to his mother, sisters, brothers and family circle as thoughts and visions of our last days together our last conversations and goodbyes readily come to mind.
In the midst of trauma and pain thoughts turn to actions as I seek confirmation and clarification from official sources, this was and still is a difficult task. To date we have never received official notice from any govemment , agency or official that our son is missing . It is claimed that a Piper Lance (single engine ) aircraft Reg. No 9H-ABU with six people on board took off from Djerba in Tunisia enroute to Malta and twenty minutes ater take off crashed into the sea. To date no evidence has been produced to substantiate this claim.
In the days that follow I endeavour to come to terms with what I believed to be a tragic air accident. On the 15th of December I received a phone call which changed my opinion and outlook completely ,the call was from a Geoffrey Williams in Liverpool the brother of Michael Williams one of five missing passengers, Geoff. Williams informed me his brother had a son, Andrew who was a serving officer in the Royal Navy and was at that time in Malta following the search operation for the missing aircrafl and passengers. I was informed he had phoned his uncle on the 12th December and told him that on that day he was in a government building where he met a Maltese public figure who conveyed to him the following message, quote “We feel you have a right to know your father‘s plane did not go down in the water, it went down on land and we know where it is”, the full detail of this statement set me on the long journey in search of my missing son or at least to establish the truth of what exactly happened to him and his travelling companions.
In pursuit of this objective I have travelled to Malta on ten occassions to attend sittings of the Board of Enquiry set up by the government of Malta to investigate this incident, on my first visit in August 1996 we met the Aquilina Family, their son Mathew is the youngest of the missing passengers , Cecilia and her son Daniel and I have worked very closely in the search for our missing children i.e. following up and cross checking all items of information that came to hand.
In the course of the many public sittings of this Enquiry held in Valletta I found it necessary to publicly question much of the evidence presented, in particular that relating to the small quantity of wreckage which included the pilots wallet cash and keys that mysteriously surfaced in the nets of a Tunisian trawler ten months alter the report of the incident To date no member of the crew or the vessel have been named the co-ordinates at which the find was supposedly made have not been made public and it was a further six months before these items of debris were returned to the Malta Government.
On 16 May 1997 I examined and photographed these items and it is obvious their condition was not compatible with their having spent ten months in the salt brine of the Mediterranean sea, there was no indication of salt pigment or the corrosion one would expect to find in such circumstances. It is claimed the aircraft fell from a height of 9000 ft into the sea in a severe storm it is strange therefore that the cable looms running through the trusses attached to the debris /components do not show any indication of the stretch, tear or rupture one would expect to find arising from the impact and ripping apart which would occur in an aircraft descending in a headlong plunge from 9000ft, from my visual
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inspection and the photograph evidence it is obvious the ends of those cables have been severed with a cutting tool.
There have been many highs and lows in my ongoing search, one of the lows has been the reluctance of Board of Enquiry, Govemment Departments, Embassies, Consuls and high profile intemational organisations to acknowledge my correspondence, my repeated requests to the Board to have the statement made by Andrew Williams to his uncle on the 12 December I995 investigated fell on deaf ears I persued this matter through a letter writing campaign in the national press in Malta,following which I received a letter from the Chairman of the Enquiry threatening legal action because a surname similar to his own appears in the statement made by Andrew Williams, in a final attempt to have this matter dealt with by the board of Enquiry Geoffrey Williams and I submitted this item of evidence as affidavits of which my own was notarised by the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin and the Hon Consul General of Malta to Ireland . These documents were totally ignored by the Board and are referred to in the Board’s final report under a paragraph headed rumour and speculation.
Of the high points was my chance meeting with a member of the Malta Armed Forces who during our conversation regarding the incident of 91-I-ABU.made the following frank and unsolicited statement quote-“ My government know that plane did not go down in the water.) there was also the private flyer, one of many such individuals who gave freely of their time and aircraft to participate in the eight day search for the missing plane and passengers. arising from his observations and experiences ( one incident in particular ) during that period this contact and it would appear others of his colleagues were of the opinion the search was part of an official cover-up (his words )
In any investigation of this incident the out bound flight of 9H-ABU to Djerba must be considered, the plane left Malta in late evening on the 2/12/95, it carried four passengers three of whom have given evidence to the Enquiry , two English men Roger Woods, John Silts and Omar Klebb the fourth passenger was never traced , for reasons that were never fully explained by the carriers representatives or the booking agent this was a free gratis flight. I have spoken to Roger Woods and John Silts (John Silts was at that time the Area Manager for Maple Services in Libya.)
In his statement to the Enquiry Woods said the outbound flight was a frightening experience the worst he had ever experienced due to high winds rain and ice, he sat in the co-pilot’s seat and was concemed at the state of the control panel area, there were no lights and the global positioning instrument was not working there were loose wires hanging out, and at one stage the pilot asked him to try and sort out the wires for the instruments but he refused ,the pilot displayed concern and agitation ,also in his evidence he stated that on two occasions during the flight he smelt burning rubber. Silts sat behind the pilot and opposite Omar Klebb he confirmed the flight was a frightening experience as did Omar Klebb when he appeared at the Enquiry on the 23 rd April 1999.,he said that on landing in Djerba he felt that God had spared him and given him another life
It was stated in evidence the plane arrived in Djerba at approximately 10-30 pm, Woods confirmed to me that when collecting his luggage from the forward luggage compartment which also houses the engine he could see that the altemator belt was hanging in shreds ( his words ) He drew the attention of the pilot to its condition ,the pilot then reached up and pulled it off and carried it with him as he and the other passengers walked to the terminal building where they arrived at about 10-45 pm . Before parting company with pilot Bartolo in the terminal building he enquired about the fitting of a new belt and was informed that there would be plenty of time to do this as he would be waiting for the weather to improve.
In discussions with Roger Woods after his statement to the Enquiry he informed me that he knew Michael Williams having worked with him on various sites in Lybia, and that evening he met with him in the temiinal building and had a brief conversation with him before heading off to catch his onward travel connection, he did not recall having mentioned to Michael the matter of the frayed altemator belt.( Omar Klebb also met and spoke to Michael Williams but again he did not mention the problem of the altemator belt ) John Silts was present when we were discussing the photographic evidence of the debris and he informed me that about that time he was having coffee with my son and Tad Goma in the coffee lounge he did not mention the matter of the frayed belt to them because he did not expect the plane would take off until sometime on Sunday when repairs had been carried out and the weather had improved.
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With regard to repairs, the fitting of a new altemator belt, in evidence to the Enquiry at its sitting in August 97 Mr Alfred Fenech the administration manager of NCA International, an aircraft maintenance company based at Safi informed the Board that his company held the contract for maintenance and repair of aircrafl owned by Excelair and Sun Aviation, and that assuming all the necessary materials. specialist tools and expertise were on hand, it would require a time period of at least three hours to carry out the work of replacing the belt, a job which included removing and refitting the propeller, he also stated that before any other company undertook this work that company would be required to obtain written authority from NCA to proceed, otherwise the insurance cover held by Excelair and Sun Aviation would be invalid.
It is a matter of record that during the many one hour fifteen minute sittings of the Board of Equiry no questions were ever raised regarding the passengers for instance their embarkation and boarding passes. why were these documents never asked for by any of the legal representatives of the missing who attended these sittings , why did the Tunisian authorities never produce these documents by way of assistance and clarification ,are we also expected to believe that a pilot of considerable experience would be so lacking in knowledge of the mechanical workings of his aircrafi that he would take off and fly into the teeth of a severe storm whose ferocity he was fortunate to survive on the outbound flight and in an aircraft whose mechanical condition indicates she was less than airworthy, then there is the is the matter of the overweight American Jirn Kemp whose place on 9H-ABU was taken by a Mr Farrugia ( a friend of the pilot ) who it appears was booked to fly home with another carrier, who rearranged this transfer , does Djerba airport operates a twenty four hour around the clock seven day week service, does it have a have camera surveillance service, these are only some of the questions which continually surface when considering the events surrounding this incident of which the evidence to date is lacking in both logic and common sense.
In the final analysis what is beyond dispute is that my son Desmond ,Tad Gorna, Michael Williams, and pilot Bartolo were alive in Djerba airport at llpm on 2nd December 1995.
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