28/05: Alarm Phone informed about boat in distress in the Central Med, reached Italian island of Pantelleria itself

29.05.2016 / 16:03 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations –28th of May 2016

Case name: 2016_05_28-CM63
Situation: Alarm Phone informed about boat in distress in the Central Med, reached Italian island of Pantelleria itself
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Saturday the 28th of May 2016 at 10pm, the Alarm Phone was informed by a contact person about a boat in distress 60 miles south of the Italian island of Pantelleria, with about 12 people on board. We called the Italian coastguard at 10.20pm and forwarded the contact person’s phone number and the GPS position of the boat in distress to them. We were told that the coastguard was already performing a rescue operation in this area, with respect to a boat with 40 people on board. At 10.45pm, we talked to the contact person again, in order to verify the number of people on board and to ask for a direct phone number of the travellers. The number of 12 travellers was confirmed and we were provided with another phone number from a brother of one of the travellers. At 11.25pm, the contact person called us again and informed us that the boat had safely arrived on the Italian island of Pantelleria. We forwarded this information to the Italian coastguard, who was still searching for the boat, and also provided them with the phone number of the contact person.

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