14/04: Boat in distress in the Aegean, rescued to Lesvos

14.04.2018 / 19:44 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 14th of April 2018

Case name: 2018_04_14-AEG373
Situation: Boat in distress in the Aegean Sea
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Saturday the 14th of April 2018, at 00.45am, our Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a contact person to a boat in distress in the Aegean Sea. We received a GPS position and we learned that the contact person had lost contact about half an hour earlier. We tried to contact the boat that was south of Lesvos. For a long time, we tried but failed to reach the travellers directly. We spoke to the Greek coastguards at 1.15am and informed them about the distress situation. We had also alerted contact persons on Lesvos, and they suggested that they may have spotted the boat in question. At 1.30am, our contact person also confirmed that the people had reached Greece, but it was unclear where precisely they were. The coastguards reached out to us at 1.50am, and it was also unclear to them where the boat was or whether they had already rescued it. However, our contact person soon afterwards stated that the people had already been brought to land by the Greek coastguards. At 2.08am, we spoke to the coastguards again confirmed that the boat rescued had been the one in question.

Credibility:

Border police patrols
While the exact location of patrols is of course constantly changing, this line indicates the approximate boundary routinely patrolled by border guards’ naval assets. In the open sea, it usually correspond to the outer extent of the contiguous zone, the area in which “State may exercise the control necessary to prevent infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws” (UNCLOS, art. 33). Data source: interviews with border police officials.
Coastal radars
Approximate radar beam range covered by coastal radars operating in the frame of national marine traffic monitoring systems. The actual beam depends from several different parameters (including the type of object to be detected). Data source: Finmeccanica.
Exclusive Economic Zone
Maritime area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea in which the coastal state exercises sovereign rights for the purposes of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, the seabed and its subsoil and the superjacent waters. Its breadth is 200 nautical miles from the straight baselines from which the territorial sea is measured (UNCLOS, Arts. 55, 56 and 57). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans
Frontex operations
Frontex has, in the past few years, carried out several sea operations at the maritime borders of the EU. The blue shapes indicate the approximate extend of these operations. Data source: Migreurop Altas.
Mobile phone coverage
Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network coverage. Data source: Collins Mobile Coverage.
Oil and gas platforms
Oil and gas platforms in the Mediterranean. Data source:
Search and Rescue Zone
An area of defined dimensions within which a given state is has the responsibility to co-ordinate Search and Rescue operations, i.e. the search for, and provision of aid to, persons, ships or other craft which are, or are feared to be, in distress or imminent danger. Data source: IMO availability of search and rescue (SAR) services - SAR.8/Circ.3, 17 June 2011.
Territorial Waters
A belt of sea (usually extending up to 12 nautical miles) upon which the sovereignty of a coastal State extends (UNCLOS, Art. 2). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans