Updated (2): Father and five-year-old son die after boat collides with dinghy at Ġnejna Bay<\/p>\n
A 43-year-old man and his five-year-old son from St Paul’s Bay lost their lives in a tragic maritime accident after the dinghy they were travelling in was struck by a boat off Ġnejna Bay in the early hours of Sunday.<\/p>\n
Police said the incident happened at around 1am when they were informed that a boat, being driven by a 43-year-old man from Rabat, had reportedly collided with a small dinghy at sea.<\/p>\n
Members of the Civil Protection Department were immediately dispatched to the area and launched a search operation for the two occupants of the dinghy.<\/p>\n
The bodies of the father and son were later recovered from the sea by Civil Protection officers and brought ashore before being transferred to the mortuary.<\/p>\n
The man was later identified as Gregory O’Brien, TVM news reported. His son was later identified as five-year-old Logan in a post by the school he attended, St Paul’s Bay primary school, who shared a photo of the child.<\/p>\n
Both the damaged dinghy, which sustained extensive damage in the collision, and the boat involved in the incident were lifted out of the water as part of the investigation.<\/p>\n
Preliminary investigations revealed that only minutes before the collision, the father and his son had left a larger boat that was anchored off Ġnejna Bay and set off for a short trip in the small dinghy.<\/p>\n
It was during this outing that the collision occurred.<\/p>\n
Magistrate Dr Joe Mifsud has been appointed to lead a magisterial inquiry, while police investigations into the circumstances surrounding the fatal accident are ongoing.<\/p>\n
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