‘I glanced at starboard and saw a small boat’

Four hours into a search flight for a missing fisherman and with a low-fuel warning, Major Mark Said had taken the decision to fly back to Malta when something caught his eye. “I glanced at starboard and saw a small boat. It was more or less what we were looking for so I decided to make one quick low pass at about 50 feet. All I could see was that there was someone wrapped in white linen,” the major told The Sunday Times. Maj. Said was piloting the Armed Forces of Malta’s plane that had been searching for 58-year-old Mario Axiaq, who spent more than 48 hours lost at sea with no food or water. He was huddled in the boat’s canopy to protect himself from the hot sun. On September 21, the maritime patrol aircraft took off at 7.15am and searched a grid looping back and forth in an attempt to spot the missing fisherman. As soon as he saw the small boat, Maj. Said contacted the army’s operation centre and asked them to notify a large fishing vessel nearby. “We climbed again and asked operations to inform the Italians to fly their helicopter to the area to have a closer look and, if need be, rescue,” he said. As soon as the aircraft rose into the air to return back to Malta, Maj. Said...