Excerpts from a transcript of a conversation between Tunisian Air Traffic Control and the Maltese pilot of a missing plane “do not make sense,” the Civil Aviation Department operations director said yesterday. Joseph Sultana told a public inquiry: “The last remarks by Tunisian Air Traffic Control do not make sense to me. There is no record of contact by the pilot, but TATC seem to be replying to something he said.”
Mr Sultana testified before Dr Philip Sciberras, who is heading the public inquiry into the disappearance of a single‑engined plane piloted by Carmel Bartolo, carrying five people last December 3.
The light plane went missing on a flight between Malta and Tunisia, with pilot Bartolo, Philip Farrugia and passengers Matthew Aquilina, Mike Williams, Desmond Boomer and Tadeusz Gorny.
The operations director was referring to the following excerpts:
At 03:58 GMT
Pilot: BU estimated transfer FIR (Flight Information Region) boundary 10
TATC: “GMT?”
Pilot: Affirmative.
TATC: Call reaching. (Call when you reach boundary)
Pilot: BU will do
At 04:08:47 GMT
(one minute before the plane was due to make contact)
TATC: BU position.
At 04:09:50 GMT
TATC: 9HABU Djerba
At 04:10:14 GMT
TATC: 9HABU position
At 04:14 GMT
TATC: “BU roger You change with Malta
? Pilot: Uniform
The last two lines were highlighted by the operations director as not making sense.
“I can only take it that TATC assumed that the pilot could listen in but was not able to transmit,” Mr. Sultana said.
He explained that about 20 minutes later, TATC contacted Malta to see if the plane had made contact with Malta air traffic control.
Mr. Sultana’s remarks led Dr Malcolm Pace, who is appearing for the pilot’s heirs, to make a formal request for, "Tunisian authorities to provide the tape or a copy of the tape of the communications between the pilot and Tunisian authorities regarding the incident."
The authorities will be asked to at least confirm that the tapes are still available.
Mr. Sultana presented a copy of the plane’s certificate of airworthiness dated January 15, 1990.
Mr. Sultana said the pilot had been to the Tunisian meteorological office twice. Once at 20:00 GMT on December 2 and another time on December 3 at 03:00 GMT.
The second time he told the weatherman briefing him that he was not going to take the weather.
The DCA man said the department did not have record of the pilot’s qualifications and had sent for copies to the United States Federal Aviation Administration.
The US FAA had transmitted the pilot’s commercial pilot licence by fax. The pilot was also a certified flight instructor, the department learned from documents sent by the FAA.
An air traffic controller on duty on December 3, Edmond Mangion, described how ATC were first alerted to the fact that the plane might have gone missing.
“We were expecting a Piper Lance plane from Djerba. At 04:11 GMT we got a message from Tunis saying the aircraft had never signalled passing over the exit boundary".
“After about an hour, with nothing being seen on short‑range radar, we contacted search and rescue and told them we had an aircraft we thought might have gone missing.”
Asked how short‑range the radar was, Mr Mangion said it showed a radius of up to 40 nautical miles. The exact time of departure was 03:46 GMT.
“Did the Tunisians indicate there had been contact with the plane,” he was asked.
“The aircraft was reported as taking off at 03:46 GMT, so I am assuming there was clearance for take‑off.”
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