Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 25th of June 2017

Case name: 2017_06_25-CM110
Situation: Around 100 travellers rescued by Frontex vessel with assistance from Moonbird
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea


Summary of the Cases: On Sunday the 25th of June 2017 at 8.38am, Father Mussie Zerai alerted the Alarm Phone to a boat in distress north of Al Khums, forwarding us their position and Thuraya phone number. The vessel was carrying around 100 travellers, and had problems with the engine. We tried calling the travellers many times, but were not able to establish contact. However, by monitoring their credit, we could see that they were making a lot of calls, and our shift team was able to recharge credit to their phone, allowing them to stay in contact with others. At 9.52am we called the Italian coast guard and passed on the information that we had. We also contacted the civil Search and Rescue (SAR) plane Moonbird. At 10.38am Moonbird informed us that they had spotted a black overcrowded rubber boat with the engine still working. At 11.10am Moonbird informed us about a second, white boat they had spotted close to the first one. They sent out a MAYDAY, and informed us that the Frontex vessel Triton had reacted to their MAYDAY, stating that they could be at the position of the boats within two hours. At 11.40am we got another update from Moonbird informing us about 20 boats north Sabratha where most of the rescue vessels were busy. At 1.48pm we got the information from Moonbird that the black rubber boat was attended by a merchant vessel, while the white rubber boat, which turned out to be the one Father Zerai had informed us about, was being rescued by Triton. The credit of the Thuraya phone kept decreasing and we kept recharging it until around 4pm, which indicates that the rescue was carried out around this time. Later in the evening we got a confirmation from the Italian coast guard that all travellers were safe and on board the Triton vessel.