Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 19th February 2021

Case name: 2021_02_19-CM368
Situation: 102 travellers rescued by Aita Mari. 
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:
In the very early morning of Friday the 19th of February, the Alarm Phone was called by the brother of one of the travellers who alerted us to a boat in distress. We were told that the engine was no longer working and water was entering the boat. A few minutes later, our shift team managed to speak directly to the travellers who told us that they were between 110 and 120 people on board of a blue boat, including many women and children. They had been at sea for more than two days, we explained how they could find their GPS position and send it to us. Some minutes later, around 03:40h CET, the travelers called us back and passed us a GPS position which we then checked and saw that it was in Maltese Search and Rescue zone. At 03:53h we emailed the Maltese and Italian coastguard, as well as UNHCR and the NGO boat Aita Mari, and passed on all the information we had. We tried to call the Maltese coastguard, but no one answered our calls. At 04:15h, after receiving an updated GPS position, we forwarded it to authorities. A few minutes later we were called again by the travellers that told us that the boat was in very bad conditions. Soon after, we spoke again to the travellers who told us that they could see lights from a bigger boat, they where trying to move in direction of the bigger boat. Around 05:00h we spoke again to the travelers, they confirmed that there were three children on board, one of which was just a few months old. Further, there were more than five women and three elderly persons. There were no life vests on bard. We also received a new GPS position which we forwarded to relevant authorities and Aita Mari. The Maltese coastguard was still not responding our calls. At 05:29h Aita Mari answered our email and informed us that their Estimated Time of Arrival was at 06:10h. We informed the travellers that a rescue ship was going to approach them, people were very anxious and afraid. At 06:15h the travellers confirmed that they could see a red ship nearby. At 07:17h Aita Mari sent another email informing that they had contacted the boat, there were 120 people on board. People were very nervous and exhausted, water was entering the boat and there was a high risk of capsizing. At 08:50h, Aita Mari confirmed the rescue of 102 travellers, including one baby and 7 women. One rescued young man was unconscious. We then published a tweet informing about the rescue. 

Tweets

19.02
09:09 https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1362675655868117015