05/10: Five people in distress in Maltese SAR, one dialysis patient returned to Tripoli

06.10.2020 / 12:52 / Central Mediterranean

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – October 5th 2020

Case name: 20201006-CM307

Situation: Five people in distress in Maltese SAR, four brought to Lampedusa, one dialysis patient returned to Tripoli by helicopter

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean

Summary

In the late afternoon of October 5th Alarmphone was alerted to a boat in distress carrying five people, including one woman and one man dependent on dialysis requiring urgent medical attendance. Weather conditions were bad at the time of first alert and continually worsened throughout the evening, high waves endangering the boat of capsizing. We contacted authorities via e-mail at 16.39 CEST via e-mail, informing of the case. We called authorities in Rome at 17.15 CEST, who confirmed they had received our e-mail but refused to provide any further information, insisting that Malta was responsible to coordinate a rescue in this case. We tried to contact authorities in Malta but our calls remained unanswered. When next in touch with the boat in distress, we suggest for the boat to try and contact authorities in Malta. According to people on the boat, their call was unsuccessful. We received updated GPS positions throughout the evening and forwarded them to authorities via e-mail. Almost seven hours after our first alert, we finally reached an operator in Malta at 23.27 CEST who took the updated GPS position and said he would call back later.

We lost contact the the boat in distress again and again throughout the night; authorities refuse to answer our calls until 06.17 CEST October 6th when Rome confirms they received our last update on GPS position. At 07.30 CEST authorities in Malta confirmed they received our e-mails but refused to provide any inforation on the progress of the rescue operation.

At 08.52 CEST we contacted authorities in Lybia, who informed us they had confirmation of the arrival of a boat matching this case on the Al Bouri oil platform at around 07.55 CEST. We were unable to establish contact to the people on the boat to confirm this information and were very concerned for health of the dialysis patient. Upon calling RCC Malta the operator relayed they had no information about the whereabouts of this distress case. At 16.00 CEST a relative of one of the people in distress called us and confirmed that the five people had reached the al Bouri oil platform. At 20.29 we were informed by the so called Lybian coast guard that all five people had been returned to Lybia. On October 9th, contrary to what the so called Lybian coast guard had told us, we learnt that the dialysis patient was medevaced to Tripoli, while the remaining four people were taken to Lampedusa by Merchant Vessel Asso29.

Twitter Chronology:

October 5th

17.13 CEST https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1313134731421265920

21.17 CEST https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1313196650165350400

October 6th

08.30 CEST https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1313365696513011713?s=09

15.44 CEST https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1313475238810746884

21.15 CEST https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1313558415650811906

October 9th

17.53 CEST https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1314594721822629888

Last update: 13:00 Jan 22, 2021

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