17, Whitehart Close,
Liverpool, L4 6UT
England.
15th July 1999.
The Board of Enquiry,
Courts of Justice,
Valleta,
Malta
Reference; Aviation Incident - The Reported Loss - Disappearance of a Piper Lance Aircraft Reg. No. 9H ABU. enroute from Djerba Tunisia to Malta on the morning of 3rd December 1995.
Dear Sirs,
My Affidavit has been prepared and I trust it will assist the members of the Board of Enquiry. My brother Michael Williams, was reported to have been a passenger on that aircraft.
Andrew Williams, my nephew, was at that time a serving officer in HM Royal Navy, on hearing of the incident and his father’s disappearance he obtained leave to travel to Malta, with his sister and was there during the period of the search for the missing aircraft and it’s passengers. On the 12th December 1995 he rang me and during our conversation he imparted the following information.
On that day he had been in a Government building where he met a Maltese public figure believed to be a Dr. Philip Scibberas who took him into an office. He told a number of staff to leave the room, and when alone in the office, this public figure made the following statement, "We feel you have the 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."
Andrew then asked the following questions.
Q. How do you know where it is?
A. Our surveillance systems monitored its distress signal for several hours after it was reported missing.
Q. If it is on land is it in Tunisia?
A. No.
Q. Then is it in Libya?
A. It is on the ground in Tripoli. Now let me make it clear if you repeat this conversation to anyone outside this room, I will deny that I ever made such a Statement.
Further to this, I know Andrews sister Julie was present with him in the government building and that she was there when Andrew was taken into the office. Julie was not allowed into the office but has confirmed that a number of staff did leave the office, and that Andrew was alone with the gentleman. I also know that Julie has confirmed this with Mr. Cormac Boomer.
On the 15th December 1995, I contacted the Boomer family in Belfast, during our conversation I conveyed the above information to Mr. Cormac Boomer.
I find it also very hard to accept that my statement seems, from my point of view, to have been ignored by the Board of Enquiry, in the past. When you consider it was the subject of a press campaign in Malta in September 1996, and also given to Scotland Yard Investigators in 1997.
Over the past three and a half years I have been in contact with Mr. Cormac Boomer and Ms. Pelligrini Petit, and I would fully endorse their statements. I would like to take this opportunity to express my thanks to the members of the Board of Enquiry.
Yours sincerely,
