Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 1st of December 2015

Case name: 2015_12_01-AEG144
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 8 distress cases in the Aegean Sea
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Tuesday the 1st of December 2015, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 8 emergency situations in the Aegean region. Three groups were able to reach Greek islands independently, while 2 vessels were rescued by the Turkish coastguards and 1 by the Greek coastguards. Two groups had stranded on Greek islands and while their rescue was finally confirmed, it came unfortunately too late for one small girl who passed away.

The first case reached us at 1.16am through a contact person who alerted us to a group of about 40 people in distress at sea (case 1). He had lost contact to the boat that was moving toward Lesvos Island. Already about 30 minutes later the travellers confirmed that they had independently reached Lesvos where they arrived near the airport of Mytilene.

Another contact person informed us only minutes later about another distress case, this time near Chios Island (case 2). A boat carrying 55 people was still in Turkish waters and they had problems with their engine. We received updated GPS positions, showing them at approximately 2.08am in Greek waters. We alerted the Greek coastguards at 2.17am and they promised to take on the case and rescue the people. When they were still in distress an hour later, we contacted the coastguard again which informed us that they had spotted the vessel. They appreciated the updated GPS position that we passed on. Then, for several hours, no new information about the case could be obtained until 11:56am when our initial contact person confirmed that the travellers had reached Chios Island independently.

The contact person from the first case also alerted us to another distress situation at 1.53am, concerning about 42 people on a vessel moving toward Chios while still close to the Turkish coast (case 3). We informed the Turkish coastguards at 2.28am and they noted down the details of the case and promised to send out a rescue vessel. We were unable to receive an ultimate confirmation that they were rescued but our initial contact person assumed that they had been rescued by the Turkish coastguards.

At 2.23am we were alerted by someone through Facebook to a situation of distress (case 4). A vessel had tried to cross the sea toward Lesvos Island. We received both a phone number and a GPS position but could not reach the travellers directly. At 3.44am we received the confirmation that the people had been rescued by Turkish coastguards.

At 4.02am we were again informed by a Syrian activist via Facebook about a distress situation near Lesvos Island (case 5). With the obtained phone number we were able to reach the travellers directly, about 30 minutes later. There were about 40-45 people on board, including 10-13 children, who had problems with their engine. At 4.42am we informed the coastguards and passed on the details of the case. In the meantime we stayed in contact with the travellers who informed us that they were very cold and that the waves were getting higher. They were also worried about a woman who had become seasick. Our contact person confirmed at 5.04am that the Greek coastguards had arrived at the scene and had launched a rescue operation.

A woman from the UK informed us about a family on a vessel moving toward Lesvos Island (case 6). Our shift team supported her and she sent us updates about the whereabouts and well-being of the family. They were moving closer to the island and finally reached it safely at 7.15am.

A Syrian activist informed us at 5.38am via WhatsApp about a group who had stranded on the small island of Ro. We found out that there were about 53 people, including 10 children. From two different contact persons we learned that a small child had died. We alerted the Greek Port Police of Kastellorizo and they told us that they had already been informed about this case via the Greek coastguards. They explained that it would be very difficult to transfer this group off the island as they were located in an area with many rocks and the weather conditions were bad. The two contact persons who were in regular contact with the stranded group gave us regular updates about their well-being and unfortunately the information about the death of the child seemed to be correct. We were informed that a rescue operation was being carried out at around 7.40am which the port police of Kastellorizo confirmed at 8.31am. We learned through the Greek news that a group stranded on Ro Island had been rescued. However, the rescue operation came too late for a 4 year old girl, who died (see source 1).

At 9.48pm we learned about a group who had stranded on Strongyli, another Greek Island (case 8). They were about 13 people, including women and children. We informed the port police of Kastellorizo at 10.35pm who confirmed that they would send out a boat to rescue them. We then informed the stranded group via our contact person. At 10.55pm the port police confirmed that they were near the island and at 11.10pm their rescue was confirmed by our contact person.