Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 28th of April 2020
Case name: 2020_04_28-CM241
Situation: 62-63 travellers from Al-Khumms possibly rescued to Malta.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

On the 28th of April in the late evening the Alarm Phone received a call from a satellite phone: around 63 travelers, among them 13 women and 6 children, left Al-Khumms at 02:00h CET. They stated to have seen an airplane twice, last time at 17:00h. At 22:32h the shift team managed to receive a GPS position that was passed on to the authorities. The travelers in distress were running low on fuel and battery. A new GPS position was received and forwarded to the authorities at 00:34h, however it was not possible to reach RCC Malta to get information about the rescue. MRCC Rome claimed that since the boat was in Malta’s Search and Rescue zone, they first needed to contact Malta before deciding on how to proceed. The shift team learned from a journalist that the GPS position suggests that the boat might have been the same boat spotted by Frontex aircraft Osprey 3 in the afternoon therefore the authorities were aware of it for a long time. At 1:15h the travelers contacted Alarm Phone saying that they had almost no fuel, food or water, the battery was running low and the children were sick. It was repeatedly not possible to establish contact with Malta. A new position was passed on to the authorities 2:26h. At 3:20h the travelers contacted Alarm Phone saying that they were lost and that more and more water was coming into the boat. At 3:56h an updated position was sent to the authorities, however the boat was now moving south-west. The contact with the travelers was reestablished at 8:48h in the morning, however it was not possible to understand their new GPS position. According to Times of Malta at 9:50h the private fishing vessel Dar Al Salam left the port in Malta in direction of the boat. It was not possible to reach RCC Malta and MRCC Rome refused to give out information about the vessel. The shift team kept on trying to contact the authorities, however without success. It was not possible to reestablish contact with the travelers. At 11:55h a press release was made about the case in order to put pressure on the authorities to carry out a rescue. At 18:50h RCC Malta answered however but refused to give out information about the boat. At 23:21 an officer claimed that he would call back with new information, however he didn’t. At 6:17 on 30.04. we decided to close the case since there had been no contact with the boat for 48 hours. The shift team assumes that the travelers were rescued to Captain Morgan serving as a combination of a salvage ship, an off-shore prison and a sea-bound hospital off the coast of Malta.