Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 18th of November 2015

Case name: 2015_11_18-AEG133
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 5 boats in distress near Strongyli, Chios and Lesvos
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Wednesday the 18th of November 2015 the Alarm Phone was alerted to 5 boats in distress near Strongyli, Chios and Lesvos. In all of the cases the travellers finally reached the Greek islands, either by themselves or with the help of the Greek coastguard.

In the night from Tuesday to Wednesday the Alarm Phone received a WhatsApp message from a contact person, informing us about a boat in distress near the Greek island of Strongyli, close to Kastellorizo (case 1). We directly called the port authorities on Kastellorizo, who told us that they were already informed about this boat in distress. At 3.30am also the contact person wrote to us that the travellers have been rescued.

At 8am we received the phone number and coordinates of a boat in distress between Çeşme/Turkey and the Greek island of Chios via WhatsApp (case 2). As the boat was already in Greek territorial waters, according to our information, we called the Greek rescue coordination centre in Piraeus. However, they told us that the boat was still in Turkish waters and informed the Turkish coastguard. We talked to the contact person again and he also asked to alert the Turkish coastguard. Thus, 8.20am we talked to the MRCC in Ankara, who had received the very same coordinates of a boat in distress as we had. However, we were told that the boat had escaped the Turkish coastguard and had arrived on Chios independently. We forwarded this information to our contact person and at 10.15am he confirmed that the travellers had indeed safely arrived on Chios.

At 9.20am another contact person alerted us to a boat in distress south of Lesvos, with about 40 people on board, among them children and women (case 3). We called the travellers on board immediately afterwards and found them in panic and screaming. Their boat was in a very bad condition and the engine had apparently stopped. At 9.30am we called the Greek MRCC in Piraeus and forwarded all information we had obtained so far. The Greek coastguard promised to search for the boat in distress. Afterwards we also sent an email to the Greek coastguard and tried to call the travellers again, but without success. However, at 11.45am the Greek coastguard confirmed to us that they had rescued the boat and had transferred the travellers to Lesvos.

At about 1am the Alarm Phone received a message via Facebook, informing us about a group who had stranded on the Greek island of Chios, unable to climb up the rocky and steep shore (case 4). After several unsuccessful attempts to reach the travellers directly we called the port authorities on Chios at 1.15pm. They took the coordinates but did not want to note the phone number of the travellers. They asked to call back one hour later, which we did at 2.30pm. We spoke to another person who wanted to take our information anew. However, we insisted to get updates on the promised rescue operation. Afterwards the coastguard admitted that they had not taken action yet, but promised again to send a car to the place on question. At 4.30pm we talked again to them and got confirmation that the group had been picked up one hour earlier.

At 10.30pm a contact person forwarded a distress call from a boat near Chios to us and provided us with a phone number and coordinates of the travellers (case 5). We tried to reach the phone number several times but were not able to talk to the travellers directly. At 10.45pm we alerted the coastguard on Chios to this boat. However, at 11.45 our contact person informed us that the travellers had safely arrived on Chios independently.