Case name: 20211221-Eastern Med-845
Situation: Shipwreck west of Folegandros, 12 people rescued, many missing/dead
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Case:
In the evening of the 21st of December we were informed by a realtive of the people on board about a boat with about 60 people. According to the relative water was entering the boat and the boat was sinking. At 18:45 CET we first alerted to the distress the Hellenic Coast Guard via email and telephone. At 19:18 CET we reached the people on the boat, we heared only backround noises but noone reacted. Then call broke. We were never able to reesablished contact after that, even though we constantly tried to reach the people. At 19:28 CET the Hellenic Coast Guard told us via phone they would be coordinating the rescue. Later in the evening we contacted the Hong Kong Shipping Company to ask if their boat the "Cosco shipping Aries" could assist the boat in distress. We contacted the Ferryboat Melina 2 for the same reason, they responded that they were already informed by the Hellenic Coast Guar and they are on their way for search and rescue.At around midnight a relative told us that he got the information of one person that this person has been rescued, and that the phones of the other people were taken by the Hellenic Coast Guard. When we call the Hellenic Coast Guard they say that a Search and Rescue is still ongoing and do not want to give more detailed information.When we called the Hellenic Coast Guard again at 08:37 CET on the 22nd of December, they forwarded us to the press office. The press office told us about an ongoing rescue operation south of Folegandros island that started during the night. There were 12 people rescued. According to the press office, there are contradictory info about the total number of people who were initially on the boat. Some of the survivors said they were 30, others 50.

See the full report about the Christmas shipwrecks in the Aegean here