Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 9th of May 2021

Case name: 2021_05_09-CM427
Situation: a boats with 96 travellers, started from Zuwara, Libya and most likely arrived in Lampedusa
Status of WTM Investigation: closed
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the Case:
In the morning of May 9th, Alarm Phone was called by a Thuraya phone. The call came from a boat with 96 people on board, including 9 women, one of them pregnant, and 5 children. We talked to one of the women on board. She told us, that they were close to Lampedusa without any fuel left. Also, the pregnant woman and the children were weak and in urgent need of rescue. She was crying and repeating to say "we don't want to die here". We promised that we would do everything we can to make the Coast Guard come for their rescue.

We informed authorities and NGO’s via Email at 11:10 CEST about the boat, gave them their current GPS-Position and explained their critical situation. Also, we tried to call RCC Malta and the Joint Operation Center Malta on all numbers, but they didn’t pick up the phone.

Meanwhile we talked to the people on board. Two of them were unconscious and had trouble breathing. They were afraid, they were going to die. We guided them via phone on how to do first aid treatment on them and told them to call us immediately if one of them would stop breathing.

We sent yet another Email to authorities at 13:01 CEST, informing them about the unconscious persons and told them, they needed immediate rescue.
We tried to reach RCC Malta and Maltese Joint Operation Center in regular time intervals, but no one picked up the phone during the whole afternoon.

At 15:27 CEST the woman on board called us again and told us, that one of the children was now also unconscious. Also, they were able to see another boat in distress close to them.
The merchant vessel SEA LOYALTY was close by the boat. We wrote an Email to them and the authorities, in which we explained the situation and sent them the GPS-Position of the boat. At 17:26 CEST we sent yet another Email with the updated GPS-Position and the other boat in distress, which was close by. No one responded and no one came for their rescue. We sent another update at 19:24 CEST, in which we pointed out their critical situation again, especially concerning the upcoming night.
At 21:00 CEST we sent another Email with an updated GPS-Position to authorities and NGO’s.
The people were in a very bad situation and in urgent need of rescue. They also called us again and asked about when we can come to rescue them. They were able to see an airplane above them.

Finally, at 00:50 CEST on May 10th, we were able to reach MRCC Rome and gave them the GPS-Position, which was 3nm away from the Italian SAR. They told us, that they were not responsible because it was in the Maltese SAR zone. At 01:40 CEST we reached MRCC Rome again and the officer took the position. We sent yet another Email to them with the updated GPS-Position and reminding them, that Italy was the competent authority now, since they arrived in Italian SAR-zone.
During the night, we called the people on board every hour, but we could not reach them anymore.

There have been many landings in Lampedusa during the night, some were taken by the Italian Coast Guard, some by another patrol boat and some arrived by themselves. We hope they are amongst them and have made it to safety!

Twitter chronology:
https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1391332433023455232
https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1391352195128377347?s=20