Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 27th of March 2016

Case name: 2016_03_27-CM55
Situation: Alarm Phone in contact with 150 people in distress in the Central Med, rescued by Italian coastguard
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Sunday the 27th of March 2016 at 8.40am, the Alarm Phone was alerted by Father Mussie Zerai to a boat in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea, with 150 people on board. Mussie Zerai had already informed the Italian coastguard, thus, in the following hour, we tried to reach the travellers several times in order to obtain their exact GPS position. Unfortunately, we were not able to speak to them directly, but we observed that the credit of their Thuraya satellite phone went down between 9am and 9.25am, thus they were at least using the phone. At 9.40am we informed a member of the Alarm Phone on Sicily about the case, who is in contact with the crew of the SOS Mediterranee rescue vessel. At 10.23am, we finally reached the travellers on board and were able to speak to them briefly. They confirmed to us that they were about 150 persons on board. However, we were not able to obtain their latest GPS position. At 10.37am and at 11am we were again in contact with the travellers, and they told us the first digits of their position, which however only allowed for an imprecise location of their position. Afterwards, we recharged the account of their satellite phone with 20 units. At 11.13am we called the Italian coastguard’s Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC )in Rome and forwarded the rather vague GPS position and the travellers’ Thuraya phone number. The coastguard was already in possession of the phone number and confirmed to us that they were already searching the boat. Afterwards, we also forwarded our information to the MRCC via email. At 2pm, the travellers on board of the boat in distress called us again and informed us that they had not yet been rescued and that their situation was becoming worse. They also told us that they were seeing a helicopter and an aeroplane above them and that another vessel was visible not far away. Immediately afterwards, we again called the MRCC in Rome and forwarded these information and asked for news on this case. We were told that they had already sent a military vessel to the boat’s position, which still needed some time to arrive there. At 3.30pm we again recharged the Thuraya phone account with 20 units, as it was nearly completely used up. At 3.50pm we sent a message to the Thuraya phone and asked for an update on the travellers’ situation. At 4pm we saw, that their phone had again been used, as their credit had went down. Between 4.15pm and 4.45pm we constantly tried to call the travellers, but did not reach them. At 4.45pm we called the MRCC in Rome again and were told that a rescue operation had started in the meantime and that the travellers would be brought to Sicily. In the evening, the Italian coastguard communicated that on this day 730 travellers had been rescued in 6 different rescue operations in the Central Mediterranean Sea.