Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 17th of September 2021

Case name: 20210917-AEG823

Situation: 1 boat with 45 people probably pushed back to Turkey

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case:

On the 17th of September at 20:45 CEST we were informed about a boat with 45people in distress close to the Greek island of Kithira. We immediately called the people on the boat who told us that their motor was not running anymore, the weather was bad and water was entering their boat. At 21:00CEST we called the Rescue Coordination Centre in Piraeus. At 21:38 we additionally called the Coastguard in Agia Pelagia, Crete to ask if they are launching a rescue mission, the officer told us they will speak with their boss and send a boat.At 22:43 we received a message from the people in the boat saying: "the greek coast guard is on our side trying to pull us off", we asked them to give us more details, but they didn't reply. At 00:23 we called the Rescue Coordination Centre in Piraeus again to ask for information about the boat. They told us they were still investigating, even after we mentioned that the people on the boat had told us about the presence of a Hellenic Coast Guard Vessel on the spot.On the 18th September at 01:49 CEST the people on the boat wrote a message saying they were fine now, but they didn't specify what happened. After that we lost contact to them.

At 12:00 the next day the Rescue Coordination Centre in Piraeus told us they didn't find the boat.The Turkish Coastguard told us they rescued 45 people after a pushback, but we are until now unsure if it's the same 45 people.

twitter:

https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1438955686990340096