Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 5th of December 2015

Case name: 2015_12_05-CM51
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to a boat in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea, rescue confirmed
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Saturday the 5th of December 2015, the Alarm Phone was contacted by Father Mussie Zerai at approximately 6am who told us about a vessel in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea and passed on a satellite phone number. We reached the travellers directly at 7.05am and were informed that they were approximately 400 people and water had already entered their vessel. They passed on a GPS position which we passed on to the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Rome at 7.11am. They promised that they would take on the case and send out a rescue vessel. We were also able to check the credit of the satellite phone to ensure that the travellers could continue to make calls and their voices heard. At 7.30am and 7.55am we received a new GPS positions which we in turn passed on to MRCC Rome. We spoke to the group frequently but as they stated that they were afraid to run out of battery we decided to keep communications brief. At 8.06am MRCC Rome confirmed that they were able to localise the satellite phone. At 11.40 we informed MRCC Rome that the group saw a large vessel in vicinity. The Italian authorities told us to inform the travellers that they should stay where they were and not move toward the large vessel since a military vessel was on its way and would reach them about one hour later, after completing another rescue operation. We passed these information on and advised the group to stay calm and wait for rescue. In the meantime we also charged their satellite phone. At 1.52pm it became more and more apparent that the travellers were getting increasingly anxious. Shortly afterwards, however, they detected the large military vessel. Afterwards, the travellers could not be reached anymore – presumably because they got rid of the satellite phone before rescue. At 3.50pm MRCC Rome refused to provide us with further details about the case apart from stating that ‘the operation was ongoing’. Only during the following day the rescue of the 400 travellers was finally confirmed.