Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 27th June 2021
Case name: 2021_06_27-CM485
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to a group of around 130 people in urgent distress in the Central Med. Eventually, they were rescued and brought to Lampedusa.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case:
On Saturday the 26th of June 2021, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted to a group of around 130 travellers in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. They were travelling on a blue wooden boat and had left from Zuwara, Libya, three days earlier. At 07.59 CEST we sent an email to all relevant authorities, forwarding all the information we had, including the GPS position of the travellers.
At 08.02 CEST we alerted the public to the situation of the travellers in the following tweet: ~100 people in distress in Malta SAR! They have been at sea for 3 days and need immediate rescue! @ArmedForcesMT & @guardiacostiera don’t delay rescues and bring them to safety as soon as possible!
In another call to the travellers they told us that their engine had broken, that water was entering the boat and that five of them were sick. We immediately forwarded this to the rescue authorities, along with the updated position of the travellers.
At 12:38 CEST we tweeted: The ~100 people are still calling, exhausted & desperate. A lot of water in entering the boat & the engine is broken. Urgent rescue is needed but there is no rescue in sight. #Moonbird spotted them. @ArmedForcesMT & @guardiacostiera #DontLetThemDrown!
We never got any answer from authorities about any search and rescue efforts, but in the evening we learned that the group on the boat had been rescued and brought to Lampedusa.