Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 29th of April 2019
Case name: 2019_04_29-CM156
Situation: One boat with 23 travellers picked up by fishermen and brought back to Libya.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of case On Monday the 29th of April at 4.00 pm CEST, the Alarm Phone was alerted by a contact person to a boat which had left from Libya and was in distress, forwarding us the number of the Thuraya phone on the boat. We managed to establish contact with the boat, however connection was very bad, and it was difficult to communicate. After several phone calls with the travellers and contact person we understood that they were 23 people, including 3 children and that the engine had broken down. The travellers said that they were near Malta, however we were not able to get a clear GPS position from the boat. We then lost contact with the travellers. At 6.55 pm CEST we alerted MRCC Malta to the case and passed on all the information we had. Malta confirmed that a rescue operation was ongoing. A few hours later MRCC Malta informed us that they had located the boat but as it was 50 NM off the Libyan coast they told us that Italy or Libya were responsible for the rescue. At 9.46 pm CEST we called MRCC Rome who informed us that they were already aware of the case. During the whole night we unsuccessfully tried to re-establish a contact to the travellers. Colibri and other SAR aircrafts searched the area on Tuesday the 30th of April, but the boat was not spotted. At 05:35 pm we received the information from the contact person that the travellers had been rescued by a fishing boat and taken back to Libya. We then passed on this information to MRCC Rome.