03/06: 9 Deaths in the Aegean Sea, including 6 Children, Antalya/Turkey

04.06.2018 / 18:12 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 03th of June 2018

Case name: 2018_06_03-AEG394
Situation: Distress situation in the Aegean Sea.
Status of WTM Investigation: Open
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Sunday, the 3rd of June 2018, our Alarm Phone shift team received a distress message from a contact person at 1.30am, alerting us to a case with apparently eight travellers, in dire need of help in the Aegean Sea. We received their GPS position and the information that some had gone already overboard. We informed the Turkish coastguards at 1.33am and they took on the case. At 2.05am, the Turkish coastguards informed us that two Search and Rescue assets had left and were searching for the boat. At 2.45am, the coastguards called us and stated that they had not found a boat. They also said that a helicopter was looking for the boat. For several hours, no new information about the group of travellers could be obtained. At 10.50am, the Turkish coastguards informed us that there had not been a case with 8 but 14-15 people, and 9 of them had died, including 6 children. Five were rescued alive, with one person in a critical condition. One person may still be missing. Later we discovered that the GPS coordinates of the capsized vessel corresponded with the coordinates that we had received during the night.

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