Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 8th of May 2019

Case name: 2019_05_08-CM157
Situation: 150 travellers from al-Khums, reportedly picked up by so-called Libyan Coast Guard
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:

On Wednesday, 8th of May, at 7 :35am CEST, the Alarm Phone was called by a boat in distress in Central Mediterranean. They told us that they had left the Libyan shore at around 5am in a wooden boat. They were 150 people on board, among them many women and children. Their engine had stopped working. As they called by mobile phone and not by satellite telephone, they couldn’t provide us any GPS position, nor did they have information on their point of departure. At 8 :10am, we informed the light aircraft Moonbird of Sea-Watch and HPI. At 8:43am we managed to talk to the travellers again, that informed us that the boat had cracked somewhere in the middle and two persons had fainted. Still we couldn’t find out their position. At 9:27am, we spoke to one of the travellers that could provide us their Thuraya number on board. It was not until 11:10am though that the people on board managed to pass us their GPS position, which was about 6NM from the Libyan shore in the east of al-Khums. At 11:21am we called MRCC Rome and passed the position and all relevant information. At 11:37am we sent all information via Mail to MRCC Rome as well as to the Maltese and Libyan authorities.
At 11:45am we talked to the travellers again. They reported that there was a hole in the boat that they had stuffed with their clothes. We passed them the number of MRCC Rome so that they could call the authority themselves as well. We tried to reach the so-called Libyan Coast Guard on various numbers that were not operative, until we finally reached an officer that took our information at 12:05am. Afterwards we talked to the travellers again, that reported that MRCC Rome had not answered their call. We passed them also the number of the Libyan authorities, so that they could emphasize the urgency of their rescue. At 12:34am, we called MRCC Rome again and informed them about the hole in the boat. They solely referred to scLYCG as responsible authority. At 12:58am we managed to establish a connection to the Libyan officer again, that confirmed that they would send a boat and launch a SAR operation.
At 1 :18pm, we received a new GPS position of the boat. We didn’t reach any number of the scLYCG to pass the updated position. At 1:28pm we talked to the people on board again, that informed us that their situation was becoming highly dangerous. At 1:31pm we called MRCC Rome but they refused to provide us any information on a SAR operation. At 1 :35, we sent a mail with the actual GPS position to all regional authorities. At 1 :40pm, the travellers called again, telling us that the two fainted persons were in a very critical condition. Afterwards, we couldn’t reach the travellers anymore. Also the authority officially in charge of the SAR, the scLYCG, was not reachable any more. At 4:12pm we called MRCC Rome that stated not having any information. Via Moonbird we received the information that an unknown helicopter and to military aircrafts had arrived in the vicinity of the boat (COTOS and c/S Mission26). We couldn’t reach neither the travellers nor the scLYCG during the next hours. At 8:12pm we called MRCC Rome. The officer stated that 150 people had been picked up by the scLYCG and said that this information was confirmed by the Italian Navy. We couldn’t get further confirmation via LYCG or Malta. We neither reached the travellers directly again to confirm their rescue.