Tragedies, Accidents or Mishaps
The following is a list, divided by decades, of a number of military tragedies, accidents, or simple mishaps that are known to have occurred at any of the airfields/landing strips in Malta, or to Maltese-registered or Malta-based aircraft. It is based on my own records/research, a list compiled by a friend of mine, records held by the Malta Aviation Society, and a series of articles which appeared in a Maltese language Sunday paper, as well as letters/articles which occasionally appear in the press, and publications of the Malta Aviation Museum. Additional material was also kindly supplied to me by Jim Halley, from his book ‘Broken Wings’. Another volume consulted was ‘Military Aviation in Malta G.C. 1915-1993’, by John F, Hamlin. Lee Howard, Air-Britain Military Helicopters Specialist, supplied the serials of the Wessex helicopters damaged on 31.10.71. Mr. Carmel Attard also contributed a substantial number of the accidents listed in the Miltary section, between the late 40s and 60s, when this page was updated on 07.03.09.
A date in bold type indicates a completely new entry, whilst other data in bold indicates recently added, or corrected, information.
These two lists are comprehensive, but certainly not the last word on the subject. Like other pages on this site, it will be corrected and/or updated as additional information becomes available.
Unfortunately, in a list of accidents that I was given, I have now realized that the date given was of the newspaper report, not the actual date of the accident itself. Most probably, the report appeared the following day, but until I can verify the dates myself, only the month and year are being listed.