Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 23rd of August 2019
Case name: 2019_08_23-AEG561
Situation: 28 (or 35) travelers drifting in Greek waters close to Lesvos, rescued by the Greek coastguard
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case:

On Friday, 23rd of August at 09:05am CEST the Alarm Phone was alerted to a group of 28 travelers by a contact person who told us they were in distress with a broken engine and needed rescue. According to the GPS location we received they were in Greek waters close to Mytilene, Lesvos. At 09:15am we tried to get through to the travelers directly but could not reach them and at 09:35am we alerted the Greek coastguard in Piraeus about the case via phone call and e-mail. We sent a message to the people on the boat to inform them about this.
We continuously tried to contact them but without success. At 10:14am the Greek authorities called us back to tell us they could not reach the travelers either and we agreed on trying to call them and updating the Greek coastguard if we would reach them. At 10:25am we reached a person on the boat and were told they were 35 people. The line broke before we could collect further information and could not be re-established. At 10:35am we informed the Greek coastguard about this and learned that they had sent a boat to the area but had not spotted the group. We agreed on keeping on trying to contact the travelers and updating the Greek CG. At 11:13am the Greek CG informed us they were still searching and at 11:37am we reached a person on the boat. We realized we needed an Arabic translator to find out more but neither the shift team nor the translator could reach them anymore from then on. At 12:00pm we informed the Greek CG about this and learned that they had found and rescued the travelers and they were all safe. We continued to try and reach the travelers for a direct confirmation of the rescue but without success and at 01:55pm we talked to the Greek CG again and compared the phone number of our case with the rescued people. It was the same, so we assumed we could close the case without a direct confirmation by the travelers.