Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 17th of November 2015

Case name: 2015_11_17-AEG132
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 4 boats in distress near Lesvos and Farmakonisi; 3 groups stranded on Strongyli, Pasas Nisida and Farmakonisi
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Tuesday the 17th of November 2015 the Alarm Phone dealt with 7 cases of distress in the Aegean Sea, near Strongyli, Pasas Nisida, Lesvos and Farmakonisi. Three groups had stranded on Greek island but were rescued and transferred to bigger islands afterwards. One group of travellers finally arrived on Lesvos independently, while two boats were rescued by the Greek coastguard and one by the Turkish coastguard.

At 0.50am the Alarm Phone received a message via Facebook informing us about 10 persons, including 6 children, who had stranded 6 hours earlier on the Greek island of Strongyli, near Kastellorizo (case 1). We talked to the travellers afterwards and were asked to inform the authorities at the next morning. At 1.10am we found out that Johnny Depp had bought the island of Strongyli two months ago. But as he was in Australia at that time, we decided not to call him. At the next morning at 7.30am we talked to the travellers again. They were fine and asked us again to inform the Greek authorities. We talked to the port authorities in Kastellorizo at 8.10am and learned that they were just waiting for their rescue vessel to become available. At noon we were again in contact with the group and at 12.30am we finally learned from several sources that the coastguard had picked up the travellers from the island.

At 6.30am a contact person sent us the position of another group of 9 persons who were stuck at the island Pasas near Chios (case 2). We learned that they were in need of help to leave the island and that they had run out of water and food. At 7am we talked to the travellers and urged them to call the international emergency hotline 112. At 7.20am the contact person told us that the group was in contact with a vessel, which, however, was not able to go ashore. At 8am we were able to reach the port authorities of the closest island, Chios. They were already informed about the case and had sent a rescue vessel to the island. Finally, rescue of the group was confirmed at 1pm.

In the afternoon of this day, at 4.40pm, we received the phone number and coordinates of a boat in distress north of Lesvos from a contact person (case 3). We called the German rescue vessel Sea-Watch, which is patrolling in this area, and forwarded our information to them. However, already at 4.50pm our contact person wrote to us that the boat’s engine had started again and asked us not to alert the Greek coastguard. At 5pm the crew of the Sea-Watch wrote to us that they were close to the boat and we forwarded the latest coordinates to them. Nevertheless, at 5.15pm the contact person informed us that the group had safely arrived on Lesvos.

At 6.50pm a contact person alerted us to a group of almost 100 travellers, among them 30 children, who were stuck on the Greek military island of Farmakonsi already for two days (case 4). While we were not able to establish contact to the stranded people directly, we called the rescue coordination centre in Priaeus at 7.50pm and were told that the weather was too bad at that day to go to the island and pick up the travellers. However, although the coastguard did not believe that the travellers had been at the island already for two days, they promised to us to go there as soon as the weather allows doing so. At 8.45pm we also talked to the port authorities on the Greek island of Leros and were told that a rescue vessel was sent to Farmakonisi, which was deemed to arrive there 15 minutes later. Although we could not reach the travellers again, we assumed that they had been rescued afterwards and brought to the island of Leros.

At 9.15pm we received a direct call from a boat in distress, which had started in Canakkale/Turkey one hour earlier (case 5). 65 travellers were on board of this boat and water was already entering. We informed the Turkish coastguard at 9.30pm and forwarded the number of the travellers. Ten minutes later we talked to the travellers again and they had also spoken to the coastguard in the meantime. We asked them to stay in touch with both the coastguard and us. At 10.10pm the Turkish coastguard told us that the boat had already entered Greek territorial waters and was close to Lesvos. Thus we called the coastguard in Mytilini on Lesvos. Beyond that, we also informed the crew of the Sea-Watch. During the night we tried to reach the travellers several times, but without success. In the early morning of the next day we again talked to the Greek coastguard in Mytilini. They had rescued several boats during the night, however they were not able to confirm that the boat in question was amongst them. The Sea-Watch crew confirmed that there had been many rescue operations during the night. During the whole day the phone number of the travellers remained unreachable. However, we got the impression that it is most likely that the boat we were in contact with had been rescued.

At 10.20pm a contact person alerted us to a boat in distress close to the Turkish coast near Asso and asked us to inform the Turkish coastguard (case 6). We called the Turkish coastguard at 10.30pm, forwarded the information and urged them to search for the boat. Afterwards we tried to reach the travellers several times, but without success. However, at about 4am the contact person told that the travellers had been rescued by the Greek coastguard in the middle of the sea and had been brought to Greece.

At 11.45pm the same contact person forwarded the phone number and coordinates of a boat in distress to us, with about 25 people on board (case 7). The boat was located between the Turkish coast and the Greek island of Farmakonisi and thus we called the port authorities on the Greek island of Leros, who told us that they were already working on this case. In the following hours we were not successful in establishing direct contact to the boat. However, at 3am the authorities in Leros told us that the boat had been transferred back to Turkey by the Turkish coastguard, because it has still been in Turkish territorial waters.