Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 26th December 2021

Case name: 2021_12_26-CM666

Situation: 30 travellers in distress in the Central Med, finally rescued by merchant vessel Pan Unity after rescue operation was delayed for days by the authorities.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary of the case: On Sunday the 26th of December 2021, the Alarm Phone shift team received a direct call from a group of 30 travellers, including six children, in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea. The travellers had left from Benghazi on a white boat and told us that they had run out of fuel and that water was entering the boat. We managed to get their GPS position and immediately alerted all relevant authorities to the distress situation. We stayed in touch with the travellers and were able to relay their updated positions to the rescue authorities. We also learned that the situation onboard deteriorated, and in a call at 04.55 CET they told us that some people had died. We attempted to reach the so-called Libyan coastguard via phone, but they did not answer. When calling the Italian coastguard, they insisted that they were not the competent authority as the boat in distress was not within the Italian search and rescue zone. As we could get no confirmation that any coastguard would coordinate a search and rescue operation, we additionally reached out to a company owning a merchant vessel in the vicinity, urging them to help. At 10.55 CET we received a GPS position from the travellers, showing that they had entered the Maltese search and rescue zone. At 18.40 CET the travellers told us that they could see the lights of a nearby vessel and an hour later they spotted an aircraft overhead. At 20.36 CET the travellers were desperate for rescue. They told us that they had been at sea for five days now, and that five people had fainted. They had no more food or water left since the morning, many people were sick and the boat was drifting. As both the Maltese and Italian coastguard remained unwilling to give us any information about ongoing search and rescue efforts, we contacted the coastguard of Hong Kong, the flag state of the nearest merchant vessel. They confirmed that they had successfully relayed the information to the merchant vessel. The travellers attempted to reignite their engine to move forward towards the merchant vessel, but did not manage.At 04.02 CET the travellers told us that they could no longer see the lights of the merchant vessel. We contacted the merchant vessel who told us that they had been given orders by Malta to continue their route and abandon the search for the boat in distress. The travellers called the Maltese coastguard themselves, but told us that they were not responding to their calls. At 08.20 CET the travellers told us that they could see a big vessel behind them. However, 40 minutes later this vessel was out of sight for the travellers as well. At around 14.00 CET we could see that another merchant vessel in the area had changed its course and seemed to be heading towards the distress case. At 15.59 CET the travellers told us that the merchant vessel had stopped close to them. After this, we were no longer able to reach the travellers. In the evening we learned that all the travellers had been rescued by the merchant vessel Pan Unity and would disembark in Malta.

Tweets about the case: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1475102529960779781?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw