Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 12th of November 2017

Case name: 2017_11_12-AEG317
Situation: 27 travellers rescued by the Turkish coast guard. Turkish coast guard very unwilling to cooperate with us.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Sunday the 12th of November 2017, at 3.32am, a contact person alerted the Alarm Phone shift team to a group of 27 travellers in distress on their way to Rhodes, forwarding us their position and phone number. During the time the people were at sea, we continuously tried to reach them, but we never managed. The position from the contact person showed that the travellers were in Turkish waters, so at 3.40am we called the Turkish coast guard. They were not interested in the information about the distress case, and hung up on us. We therefore called the Greek coast guard, who advised us to call the Turkish coast guard in Ankara. However, the coast guard in Ankara did not want to hear about the distress neither, so we sent them an email with all the information to make sure they were aware of the case. At 3.55am we called the Greek coast guard to make them aware of our concern, that the Turkish coast guard refused to respond to the distress case, and they promised to call the Turkish coast guard as well. At 4.35am we called the Greek coast guard again. They told us that they were not involved in the rescue operation, and that we should call the Turkish coast guard, but when we told them about our communication issues with the Turkish coast guard, they agreed that we could call them back to get an update about the case. Between 4.40 and 5.45am we called the Turkish coast guard many times. Most of the times the line was either busy, or the officer hung up straight away. When we finally got through to them, they shouted angrily at us in Turkish. At 6.00am we called the Greek coast guard, who still had no information about the rescue operation, and once again urged us to call the Turkish coast guard to get news. At 7.42am we reached one of the travellers, who informed us that they had been brought back to Turkey by the Turkish coast guard, and that they were all alright.