Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 13th of October 2019
Case name: 2019_10_13-CM203
Situation: 10/13: 2 cases: 40 people, most likely from Libya, rescued to Lampedusa; 102 people from Zawiya, rescued by Ocean Viking
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the Case:

On the 13th of October at 8:32pm CEST the alarmphone shiftteam was called by a wooden boat in distress carrying 40 people, most likely departed from Libya. At 21:48pm the people on the boat gave us their GPS coordiante which showed them close to Lampedusa. They said that water was entering their boat. At 10:19pm we alerted the Italian coastguard. At 1:11am the next morning (14th of October) we learned from the Italian coastguard that the travellers were ’safe’ and were to be taken to Lampedusa.

On the 13th of October at 9:46am CEST the alarmphone shiftteam received a distress call from another boat carrying 102 people, among them 5 children and 16 women, three of which were pregnant. One of the pregnant women was in a critical condition. We alerted both the Italian coastguard and Ocean Viking. Ocean Viking was already engaged in a different search during the night but was then able to search for the 102 travellers. We stayed in contact with the boat and at 11:10am they reported seeing a white helicopter and then at 11:40am they also saw a boat. At 12pm Ocean Viking confirmed that they had found the travellers and would begin the rescue. At 2:08pm we received confirmation of the successful rescue of 102 travellers by Ocean Viking.