Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 10th of October 2018

Case name: 2018_10_10-AEG439
Situation: 3 boats in the Aegean: One brought back to Turkey, two rescued to Greece
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases:

On Wednesday, 10th of October, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 3 boats in the Aegean Sea. One boat on its way to Farmakonisi island with 9 people on board was brought back to Turkey. A group of 49 people who had already landed on Farmakonisi island got eventually picked up by the Hellenic Coastguard and was brought to Leros. The third boat was rescued by the Hellenic Coastguard to Samos.
On the same day a tragedy happened when a boat sank near Lesvos island. Nine dead bodies were found, one woman rescued and at least 25 people are still missing.

Case 1: At 4:57am CEST we were alerted to a boat carrying 9 people that were on their way to Farmakonisi island. They were travelling on a speed boat and the engine had stopped. Their position was still in Turkish waters and they asked for assistance. At 5:07am we managed to establish a connection to the boat but couldn’t find out more about their situation. At 5:33am we called the Turkish Coast Guard that promised to send assistance. We also wrote an email to the respective authorities to document the alert. At 8:19am we received an email that informed us about the rescue of the boat to Didim in Turkey. We couldn’t establish a connection any more to the travellers to confirm their safe arrival.

Case 2: At 5:20am CEST we were informed about a group of 49 people that had landed on Farmakonisi island. We managed to establish a connection and received their GPS position, but we couldn’t communicate much more due to language barriers. We called JRCC Piraeus at 5:50am to inform them about the group. We also sent an email with all respective information. A contact person informed us that the group then had been transferred to Leros island. We called Leros port authority at 11:35am to confirm, and they stated that the group would be transferred to the island shortly after. We couldn’t establish a connection to the group anymore to confirm directly with the people.

Case 3: At 6:37am CEST we were alerted to a boat carrying 47 people on its way to Samos. We also received their GPS position. The boat was already in Greek waters. We couldn’t establish a connection to the boat. At 6:55am we called the JRCC Piraeus and informed them about the information given to us. They informed us that they had just rescued a boat at the location we gave them with a fitting number of people on board. The contact person confirmed the rescue to Samos.

The same day, we receive news about a boat that had left from Izmir the 8th of October and had capsized on its way to Lesvos. One woman managed to reach the shore 28 hours later and alerted the authorities, that hence retrieved 9 corpses of the sea, and at least 25 people remain missing. The Alarm Phone was not in contact with the travellers. We want to express our deep condolences to the families and friends of those dead or missing.