21/09: 52 people in distress in the Ionian Sea rescued by a Merchant vessel

22.09.2022 / 21:52 / Eastern Med

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 21 of sept 2022

Case name: 2022_21_09-Eastern Med - 1015

Situation: 52 people in distress in the ionian sea, rescued to Kalamata in a Merchant Vessel

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Eastern Med

On 21st of september, the Alarm Phone was alerted about a boat in distress in the Ionian sea. The boat left from Lebanon on the 19th evening with 52 people on board and was damaged. The weather and conditions on the boat were bad. At 10pm, we were finally able to reach the people on the boat before we lost connection again. It took us until 1:30 am in the night to get a GPS Position from the boat. Alarm Phone then forwarded the position of the distress immediately to Italian, Maltese and Greek authorities. The Greek coordination center told us that the people were safe and rescued on a merchant vessel, refusing nevertheless to share more information. We later found out via media articles that the cargo "Nordic Anna (IMO 93370289)" brought them, among 86 people, to Kalamata port in Greece. We unfortunately did not know what happend after the arrival to the people.

https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1572998390719434753?t=UzBwqiC8YMel3kqliiMQdg&s=09

Credibility:

Border police patrols
While the exact location of patrols is of course constantly changing, this line indicates the approximate boundary routinely patrolled by border guards’ naval assets. In the open sea, it usually correspond to the outer extent of the contiguous zone, the area in which “State may exercise the control necessary to prevent infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws” (UNCLOS, art. 33). Data source: interviews with border police officials.
Coastal radars
Approximate radar beam range covered by coastal radars operating in the frame of national marine traffic monitoring systems. The actual beam depends from several different parameters (including the type of object to be detected). Data source: Finmeccanica.
Exclusive Economic Zone
Maritime area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea in which the coastal state exercises sovereign rights for the purposes of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, the seabed and its subsoil and the superjacent waters. Its breadth is 200 nautical miles from the straight baselines from which the territorial sea is measured (UNCLOS, Arts. 55, 56 and 57). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans
Frontex operations
Frontex has, in the past few years, carried out several sea operations at the maritime borders of the EU. The blue shapes indicate the approximate extend of these operations. Data source: Migreurop Altas.
Mobile phone coverage
Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network coverage. Data source: Collins Mobile Coverage.
Oil and gas platforms
Oil and gas platforms in the Mediterranean. Data source:
Search and Rescue Zone
An area of defined dimensions within which a given state is has the responsibility to co-ordinate Search and Rescue operations, i.e. the search for, and provision of aid to, persons, ships or other craft which are, or are feared to be, in distress or imminent danger. Data source: IMO availability of search and rescue (SAR) services - SAR.8/Circ.3, 17 June 2011.
Territorial Waters
A belt of sea (usually extending up to 12 nautical miles) upon which the sovereignty of a coastal State extends (UNCLOS, Art. 2). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans