On 3rd December, 1995, a distress signal coming from a disused airfield east of Tripoli was picked up by satellite Compass. signal VHF-2121-5 via Toulouse, whether this signal was launched from the Piper Lance has never been verified.
A similar related item was covered in the Malta Independent Newspaper in December, 1995, translation follows
Distress Call, which was picked up by an aircraft, which was taking part in the search, is the only hope that the family has that they are still alive. That's why they are asking for more information where the call came from.
The emergency message was picked up by a particular aircraft, 29 hours after the aircraft disappeared, and this hampered the search. From investigation by this newspaper it was confirmed that the distress call was made somewhere close to Tripoli and after the transmission lt stopped transmitting. The Bartolo family are saying that from information they have that the Libyans took 3 hours to find out the "Call" and afterwards they said "Someone hit a switch" because they have no confirmation that the aircraft crashed, the Bartolo family are connecting the "Distress Call" with their brother, Carmelo's aircraft.
