Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 29th of July 2016

Case name: 2016_07_29-CM73
Situation: Alarm Phone in direct contact with boat in Central Med, 98 travellers rescued by SOS Mediterranee
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Friday, the 29th of July 2016 at 8.04am, Father Mussie Zerai alerted the Alarm Phone to a boat in distress in the Central Mediterranean Sea and forwarded the travellers’ Thuraya satellite phone number to us. He informed us that there were 150 travellers on board and that their boat was located northeast of Tripolis/Lybia. However, he had not received their exact GPS position yet. We tried to call the phone several times, but were unable to reach the travellers; either the phone was busy or it was ringing and no one picked up our call. Beyond that, we checked the credit of the satellite phone, which was at 38.71 units at 8.28am. At 8.30am, we called the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) in Rome and forwarded the satellite phone number of the travellers in distress. Apparently, the Italian coastguard was not yet aware of this boat. At 8.35am, we reached the travellers via phone and were able to talk to them briefly. They confirmed to us that there were about 150 people on board and that water was entering the boat. Unfortunately, we were not able to find out their place of departure or their GPS position, because the phone connection broke down. The Thuraya’s credit went down to 37.22 units after this call. Afterwards, we tried to recall the travellers, but their phone line was either busy or they did not pick up our call. At 8.40am, Father Mussie Zerai forwarded a GPS position to us, which he had obtained from the travellers (position 1, see below). We forwarded this position to the MRCC in Rome immediately afterwards and also informed them, that we had heard the sound of an engine while talking to the travellers. At 8.45am, we unsuccessfully tried to call them again, and 5 minutes later, we observed that their phone’s credit had gone down to 34.24 units. However, at 8.53am, the travellers called us back and after some difficulties of understanding we received another GPS position, which was further south than the one Mussie Zerai had forwarded to us (position 2). We called MRCC Rome immediately afterwards and provided them with the new position. As the two positions differed, they asked as to recall the travellers, in order to confirm the position. We tried to do so in the following 30 minutes, but were not able to speak to them again. Instead, we sent several SMS to them and asked them to call us again. Although we were not able to reach the travellers, we observed that their Thuraya’s credit went down constantly, from 22.32 units at 9.10am to 10.40 units at 9.25am, indicating that they were using their phone very much. At 9.25am, we recharged their Thuraya account with 20 units. Five minutes later, at 9.30am, we were eventually able to speak to them again. They provided us with another GPS position, which was in vicinity of the second one (position 3). We forwarded this position to MRCC Rome at 9.32am. Afterwards, we were not able to re-establish contact to the travellers. At 10am, we sent an email to the Italian and Maltese coastguard and also to the UNHCR, providing them in written form with all information we had obtained so far. At about the same time, we figured out that SOS Mediterranee’s private rescue vessel AQUARIUS was the closest vessel to the boat in distress, visible on vesselfinder.com. However, it was about 44 nautical miles away from the boat and did not move. At 10.10am, we tried to get in touch with SOS Mediterranee via a contact person from our network, but without success. At 10.25am and again at 10.38am, we tried to call people on board again, but they did not pick up. At 10.35am, we forwarded our distress email to the bridge of the AQUARIUS. 10 minutes later, the crew replied to us, stating that they were on their way to the boat in distress, but that it would take them 4 hours to reach the given position. At 10.55am, we observed on marinetraffic.com, that their vessel was indeed moving in the direction of the boat in distress with a speed of 9.8 knots. The estimated time of arrival at the latest GPS position was indicated as 2.30pm. In the meantime, we constantly tried to call the travellers again, but without success. After it had been at 22.95 units for quite a while, the credit of their phone went down to 16.99 units at 11am. At 11.05am, we sent an email to the AQUARIUS and thanked them for their information and asked them to keep us updated. At 11.30am, the Thuraya’s credit went down to 14 units and their phone was busy again. This was an indication for us that their phone had not run out of battery. As we were still not able to reach them via phone, we informed them about the approaching rescue vessel AQUARIUS via SMS, wrote to them that it will take the vessel three hours to reach them and asked them to stay calm and seated in the meantime. In the following three hours, until 2.25pm, we constantly tried to reach the travellers without success and observed that their credit stayed at 14 units. Beyond that, we monitored the trajectory of the rescue vessel AQUARIUS, which was going in the direction of the travellers in distress at a constant speed of about 10 knots. At 2.25pm, we observed that the rescue vessel was only about two nautical miles or ten minutes away from our last known GPS position. At 2.28pm, the crew of the AQUARIUS informed us about a GPS position update they had received from MRCC Rome, which was further northeast than we had expected, and also a longer way for them. But apparently, they were searching the boat. After another unsuccessful attempt to reach the travellers, we wrote another email to the AQUARIUS at 2.44pm, informing them that we had not been able to reach the travellers again, but that at least the direction and estimated trajectory of the new position provided by MRCC fit to the ones we had received earlier this morning. At 2.50pm, we sent another SMS to the travellers via sms.thuraya.com and asked for an update on their position. In further calls between 3pm and 4.25pm, the Thuraya phone was always ringing, but the travellers did not pick up our calls. Yet, their credit remained at 14 units. At 3.40pm, we observed on maritimetraffic.com that the AQUARIUS made a turn southwards and at 5.20pm, we asked the crew for further information via email. At 5.30pm, Médecins Sans Frontières posted on their Twitter account @MSF_Sea that the AQUARIUS had just rescued 98 travellers from a rubber boat. At 5.40pm, we called MRCC Rome again, in order to receive a confirmation that the boat in distress had been rescued. We were informed that on that day all rescue operation had been finished successfully and that all people in distress had been rescued. The officer was not willing to confirm more precisely, if the boat of the Thuraya number we had been in contact with was amongst the rescued boats. However, at about 7pm, the crew of the AQUARIUS informed us via email, that they had rescued a boat in distress in the respective area, with 98 persons on board. But because we had initially been informed about 150 persons on board of the boat in distress, we were not entirely sure, if the rescued boat was the one we had been in contact with. According to vesselfinder.com, the AQUARIUS had rescued the boat at position 5, thus about 12 kilometres away from the last position known by the MRCC (position 4) and 6 kilometres away from the position we had received (position 3). Thus, at 7.38pm, we asked the crew of the AQUARIUS for a confirmation of the Thuraya phone number we had dealt with. Later on, the crew informed us that MRCC Rome had confirmed to them that the boat we had dealt with and the boat the AQUARIUS had rescued was indeed the same. Finally, we informed Father Mussie Zerai about the successful rescue operation. At the end of the day, the Italian coastguard published a press release, stating that on that day a record number of more than 3.400 persons had been rescued in 34 separate rescue operations in the Central Mediterranean Sea.