Updated | PN renews call for information on Lampedusa tragedy

The Nationalist Party has renewed its call for information surrounding the Lampedusa tragedy to be made public. In a statement, the PN said 270 irregular migrants perished in the tragedy and questions which have subsequently surfaced on the rescue operation went unanswered.

A Freedom of Information request on the specific details sent by MaltaToday was turned down by the Armed Forces of Malta.

MaltaToday has now asked for a review of the AFM's refusal, before submitting a complaint to the Information and Data Protection Commissioner.

"Newspapers have submitted questions, the Opposition has issued two statement and the government replied with deafening silence," the Opposition said.

"Such attitude by the government is unacceptable, especially considering that the case involves the deaths of 270 immigrants in extraordinary circumstances. The more information it holds back, the more it gives the impression it has something to hide."

The PN said it is the government's responsibility to answer as soon as possible all questions that are being made.

In a reaction, an AFM spokesperson said that the army had acted according to international rules and obligations. "The result of this was that many lives were saved thanks to the intervention of the army," AFM spokesperson Keith Caruana said.

What the issue is about

Just over 200 lives were saved by the Maltese and the Italians during the shipwreck.

The AFM first located the boat at 4pm on 11 October, using its King Air aircraft - but that was three hours after the Italian coast guard informed the Maltese army with the coordinates of the boat in distress.

It is crucial to learn at what time the Hawker Beechcraft King Air plane left Malta after Rome's Coordination Centre passed on the rescue mission at 1:05pm.

A chronology of the events of the day as relayed by Admiral Felicio Angrisano to Italian weekly L'Espresso, revealed that the Italians offloaded the responsibility for the search-and-rescue mission to Malta, when an Italian naval asset - the ITS Libra - was closer to the boat in distress.

Although the migrants' boat was located within Malta's search and rescue zone, the boat was also 60 nautical miles (113km) south of Lampedusa island, and 218km away from Malta.

What is unclear at this stage is whether Italy and Malta were collaborating with each other at that point when, at 1:05pm, the Italians decided to pass the buck to Malta.

While the Italians say they passed on the rescue coordination to Malta at 1:05pm, it is unclear as to what took place between this hour and the AFM's location of the boat at 4pm. Admiral Angrisano says the time the King Air located the boat is at 4:22pm.

According to L'Espresso, Italy's Libra patrol boat - apart from the merchant vessels Stadt Bremerhaven and the Tyrusland, respectively carrying flags of the Marshall Islands and the United Kingdom - was already 27 miles away from the rescue point. From data collected by Goldsmiths University's oceanographic project, it is believed that the Libra - out on patrol to protect Italian fishermen from Libyan militias - could have made it to the rescue point within 90 minutes at its top speed of 37 km per hour.

What is sure is that the Italians did not despatch the Libra any sooner. In fact it was only after the AFM's patrol boat P61 arrived on the scene at a time between 5:07pm and 5:15pm, that it alerted the Italians for assistance.

As confirmed by Admiral Angrisano, the Libra and Espero naval assets, as well as coast guard and Guardia fi Finanza, arrived on the scene soon after.