Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 16th of April 2019
Case name: 2019_04_16-AEG510
Situation: 2 boats carrying 60 & 23 people rescued to Greece by the Greek coastguard
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case: In the early hours of Tuesday the 16th of April 2019 the alarm phone shift team were alerted to a boat in distress close to Samos island, carrying about 60 travellers. At 5:05am CEST we contacted the Greek Coastguard and at 5:36am the travellers confirmed their rescue to Greece. In the evening of the same day our shift team was alerted to a boat carrying 23 travellers, among them 11 children and 5 women, very close to the coast of Northern Lesvos near Palios. At 9:32pm we alerted the Greek coastguard and only minutes afterwards the boat landed in a place that was difficult to access. At 11:27pm we learned that the travellers were rescued and on their way to Skala Sikamineas port.
At 4:47am we were alerted to a group of 60 people in distress with water entering their boat, travelling from Turkey to Greece. At 5:05am we informed the Greek coastguard, and later updated them with new GPS coordinates as we received them. At 5:36am the contact person confirmed that the Greek coastguard had rescued the travellers.
At 9:05pm we received an alert about a boat carrying 15 people (11 adults and 4 children) in distress near Lesvos. We were able to make direct contact with the boat at 9:13pm and learned that water was coming into the boat and that the travellers could see the coast. They contacted the Greek coastguard themselves, which we followed up a few minutes later. Over the next hour we lost contact with the travellers, but stayed in communication with the Greek coastguard who reassured us that there was an ongoing rescue operation. At 10:53pm the contact person for this case informed us that the travellers had been rescued by the coastguard. At 7.18am the next day (Wednesday the 17th of April) we received confirmation from the travellers that they had arrived safely in Greece.