Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 12th of May 2019

Case name: 2019_05_12-AEG524
Situation: 40 ppl brought to Çeşme by Turkish Coast Guard, 45 ppl brought to Chios by Greek Coast Guard, 46 ppl brought to Samos by Greek Coast Guard
: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases:

On Sunday, 12th of May, our shift teams were alerted to 3 boats in distress in the Aegean Sea. One boat was carrying 45 travelers who were picked up by the Turkish Coast Guard and brought back to Turkey. The second group of 45 people was rescued by the Greek Coast Guard on their way to Chios and the third group of 46 travelers was most probably brought to Samos, rescue was confirmed by the Greek Coastguard.

Case 1: At 2:11am CEST our shift team was alerted about a boat in distress carrying 40 travelers who had left from Turkey. Their location was in Turkish territorial waters. According to our contact person the boat was losing air and the people urgently needed a rescue and had asked to call the Turkish Coast Guard (TCG). At 2:16am we called the TCG and learned that they had already been informed about the case and were sending out a rescue vessel. We tried and reach the travelers again but without success and at 3:10am we called the TCG to ask how the rescue was proceeding. They informed us that the group was at a beach by now, waiting to be picked up from there. Our contact person sent us a current location showing that the travelers were on the small Island Kara Ada. At 3.38am the TCG called us back to inform us that the people were doing fine and had been picked up from the beach to be transferred to Çeşme. At 5:38am we received a confirmation by the travelers that they were doing well.

Case 2: At 7:24am CEST we were alerted to a boat in distress on the way to Chios carrying approximately 45 persons, among them 10 children. The contact person had lost contact to the travelers already an hour ago. At 7:40am we received a current location of the boat which was close to Chios and very close to Greek territorial waters. At 7:45am we called MRCC Piraeus to inform them about the distress case and sent them an e-mail with the corresponding information. At 8:30am we called the Greek Coast Guard again to ask for an update of the rescue procedure and they agreed to let us know in case there were news. We still could not establish a connection to the travelers. At 9:50am we called the Port Authorities on Chios and passed them the GPS location, but they could not provide us with any information. At 10:05am we called them again and they informed us that a boat with 52 people had been rescued. We assumed this could be our case even though the number of people did not match exactly. We could not find out the number of children on the boat which could have been a hint to clarify the question. We assume this was the group in question, but could not get any final confirmation.

Case 3: At 7:48am we were alerted to a boat in distress. At 8:02am we re-established a connection to the travelers and learned that they were on their way to Samos and they were asking for help. We could not find out any more specific information about the number of travelers and their situation. At 8:14am we received their GPS location which was in Greek territorial waters north of Samos. At 8:19am we called MRCC Piraeus to inform them about the distress case and sent them an e-mail with the corresponding information. When we tried to inform the travelers about the action taken, we could not get through to them anymore. At 8:49am we called the Greek Coast Guard again to get news and they asked us to try and get a new position from the travelers, but we could not re-establish a connection. At 9:02 we informed the GCG about the fact that we had lost contact to the travelers. At 9:40am we called the port police on Samos and learned that a boat carrying 46 people had been rescued and had not arrived on the Island yet. At 9:43am we called the MRCC Piraeus for more detailed information and they confirmed the rescue of the boat but could not confirm the number of people. We could not get through to the travelers to get a final confirmation of their rescue because their phone was off.