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US Navy release images of migrant rescue off Malta
The US Navy released pictures and a statement over the rescue of 68 Somali migrants who were rescued after Maltese authorities requested assistance from Sigonella airbase late on Saturday afternoon.
17 January 2012, 12:00am
Karl Stagno-Navarra
Karl Stagno-Navarra
1 min read
An infrared aerial picture taken of the migrant boat being assisted by the US Navy and the M/V Verona closeby
The migrants were rescued on the high seas some 80 miles south of Malta and were brought to Malta on Sunday, after securing them on board a freighter vessel the M/V Verona.
According to a statement issued by the US Navy, members of Hawaii-based Patrol Squadron 47 aircrew and working out of Sicily's Naval Air Station Sigonella, received a distress call from Maltese authorities just before sunset on Saturday.
"The sailors, at Sigonella for a six-month rotation, boarded a P-3 Orion aircraft, scouring a 30-by-60-nautical-mile area and spotted a drifting raft that was empty and continued the search," said the crew's commander, Navy Lt. Nicholas Warack.
"It was essential for us to get assistance to those people," Warack said yesterday.
Now flying in darkness, the crew spotted a rubber raft carrying 68 men, women and children of Somali origin, the release said.
Warack said the crew dropped water, food and flashlights to the raft and flagged a civilian vessel, the M/V Verona, 60 miles away.
While waiting for the ship to arrive, the P-3 crew stayed in the area to reassure them that help was on the way, Warack said.
Just before 1 a.m. on Sunday, the M/V Verona arrived and got the passengers on board, and they were later transferred to Maltese authorities.
The P-3 was designed for long-range anti-submarine warfare, but its mission has evolved to include battle space surveillance over land or sea, according to the Navy.
"The search-and-rescue mission is always something P-3s have been on the hook for," Warack said.
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One thing is unclear from this statement and that issued by the Maltese AFM. Was the dinghy or raft in waters under Maltese or Libyan or Italian responsibility for search and rescue? What was the closest safe port of disembarkation? If they were not in Malta's area, or if Malta was not their closest safe port of disembarkation, then it was OK for the AFM to rescue them but now they should be sent to the country to which they were closest.
