Village, vera ghandek mentalita’ tar-rahal.

The helicopter, a Lynx, had taken off from Royal Dutch Navy frigate Hr. Ms. Tromp, which was in Malta few days ago. The helicopter in question is NRN 277, and three “soldiers” captured were the aircrew. It seems that one of them is a woman (this is no irrelevant, because it adds leverage to the Dutch government’s demands for their return).

The helicopter had gone into Sirte to evacuate two European nationals, who were also captured. They’ve since been released, and have now left Libya. Sirte is Gaddafi’s birthplace, so the mission was near-suicidal, especially since it involved a single helicopter, with no escort, and no backup troops or anything. God knows what the Dutch were thinking. I’d say it was an in extremis situation for them to have gone in in this manner.

As a point of interest, the soldiers are not marines (mariniers), but sailors (matrozen). Even the Dutch media are getting it wrong.

Dan Il- bniedem mhux ta’ min jafdah! Ma nafx id- dinja x’qed tistenna? Min jaghmel atti b’hal dawn ikun qed jibza hafna. Jiena rajtu kemm il- darba jaghmel diskorsi bla sens. Li jiskantani hu li m’ghandux naqra sens ta’ htija, giddieb mad-dinja kollha u ma jriedx icedi, hu issa li tilef 90% tal- battalja jigi jaqa u iqum mid-disstuzjoni umana.

Good morning. I think Village was refering to the trips of Virtu, and not ‘enterprise’ as in the generic sense. Even if it should be obvious that the ‘Maltese enterprise’ should know what they are doing and do not need our ‘word of caution’.

Does ‘Maltese enterprise’ engage the services of marines or fly helicopters off frigates to rescue people from Libya?