Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 24th of june 2020
Case name: 2020_06_24-CM255
Situation: 51 travelers rescued by Ocean Viking in central med
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

At 04:04 am (CEST) the 24th of June, a boat called our nightshift team from the central Mediterranean sea. After difficulties to communicate, the travelers managed to transmit their GPS position which was clearly in Maltese SAR zone. We sent the information to MRCC Malta, MRCC Rome and to the rescue boat Ocean Viking, part of the #civilfleet. The people had left 25 hours before from Zuwara, Libya. We were told there was no food, water or fuel anymore on the boat, and that water was entering the boat, increasing the risk of capsizing. We got a new contact at 06:03am (CEST) with a new position and sent all information to the authorities, and then called MRCC Malta to check if they had gotten our mails and give them the position again. At 06:43 we got an email from Ocean Viking explaining that the rescue ship was currently near Lampedusa, proceeding South and would investigate this case. In the next 2 hours, we managed to reach the migrants several times, getting updated position with difficulties as the connection was very bad. We sent this new position to MRCC Malta Rome and Ocean Viking. The last contact to the boat was at 08:12 CEST. We tried to reach the travelers all day long but without success. Ocean Viking wrote to us and to the MRCC that they were heading to the position we sent them. At 15:30 (CEST) we got the information that Ocean Viking had successfully rescued all 51 persons.