09/08: Boat with 13 travellers capsized, nine people (seven children and two women) drowned.

10.08.2018 / 18:25 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 9th of August 2018
Case name: 2018_08_09-AEG409
Situation: Nine people dead, as boat capsized off the Turkish coast. Survivors brought back to Turkey.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Thursday the 9th of August at 5.40am CEST, the Alarm Phone shift team was contacted by a relative, asking for information about a group of 12 travellers. He forwarded us a position very close to the Turkish coast, and a phone number which we were not able to reach. The relative did not have any further information about the travellers. Around noon we got in touch with a solidarity group at Samos, who informed us that there had been one shipwreck in the night. This group consisted of 13 travellers, of which nine had drowned; two women and seven children. By further investigation we found out that no boat with 12 people had arrived to Samos this day. We passed on the number of the local police station to the relative, who from them got the information that his relative was amongst the survivors, and that the survivors had been brought back to Turkey.
We are sad and angry about this loss of lives that would not have happened if they could have taken the ferry to cross the sea.

Media-articles:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-euro ... KU0UY?il=0
http://t24.com.tr/haber/kusadasinda-goc ... olu,674462
https://www.haberturk.com/son-dakika-ku ... lu-2095228

Last update: 14:16 Sep 09, 2018

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