Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 28th of August 2020

Case name: 20202808-AEG703

Situation: Approximately 75 travellers started from Greece to reach Italy, rescued back to Zakynthos, Greece

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case:

On 28th of August 2020 the Alarm Phone received a call from travellers in the Ionian Sea between Greece and Italy. They stated to be 70 to 75 persons on board of a yacht, among them 15 to 20 women, several children and 3 or 4 small babies, one of them was 5 month old and suffering from a heart disease. At 22:56h CEST the shift team alerted the authorities by email and later by phone.

The coast guard office in Pireaus stated to knew already about the case and confirmed to coordinate a rescue operation. The Alarm Phone regularly received current GPS positions and information about the situation on board and forwarded them to the responsible authorities the whole time. Around 01:00h CEST at 29th of August the travellers were asking why nobody were coming. The shift team called the port authority of Zakynthos at 01:45h to gather information but wasn‘t successful at this point. At 02:29h a call to JRCC Pireaus was made and the officer of duty told the Alarm Phone that a vessel will arrive on spot around 6am.

Within the next hours worried relatives called the Alarm Phone. Some of them were in touch with the travellers themselves and reported for example that a big boat were faking a rescue and laughed about the travellers. At 05:10h the people on board messaged the Alarm Phone that the situation became urgent. The shift team called JRCC Pireaus. The office gave vague information about that a coast guard vessel were about to arrive. At 06:20h the travellers stated to see an island, one hour later they informed the shift team that help has come, but 20 minutes later the situation didn‘t change. The vessel were only watching.

At 09:06h the Alarm Phone published the first Tweet. Later on an email was sent with the GPS position from 08:26h and the following information: „The people on the boat are rapidly fatiguing physically and psychologically. The weather is continually worsening, people are endangered of being thrown over board by jolts of the sea. Moreover there is a sick baby, people on the boat are really worried of the baby. People have been adrift all night now and are desperately asking for assistance.“

At 10:06h the shift team called the port authority of Zakynthos again, they stated to wait for the order of the ministry. One hour later, at 11:05h the travellers informed us to be pulled by a Greek coastguard vessel. The GPS positions the travellers sent to Alarm Phone indicate that they were pulled to Zakynthos. Authorities refused to give information. At 20:17h the travellers were about to arrive in the harbour, and later they told the Alarm Phone they were on land.

Twitter chronology:

09:06h https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1299603792556679168