Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 08th of October 2015

Case name: 2015_10_08-AEG93
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 5 vessels in distress, near Lesvos and Samos, all rescued
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Thursday the 8th of October 2015 the Alarm Phone was alerted to five situations of distress in the Aegean Sea, near the Greek island of Lesvos, Samos and Agathonisi. The Greek coastguard rescued two groups of travellers while three other groups were returned to Turkey. Turkish fishermen had rescued one group and another group was rescued by the Turkish coastguard.

At 1am the Alarm Phone was alerted via WhatsApp to a boat in distress close to the northern shore of the Greek island of Lesvos (case 1). The engine of the boat had stopped, with 45 people on board. As the boat was clearly in Greek territorial waters we immediately called the Greek coastguard in Mithimna on Lesvos. The person on duty took the coordinates and promised to search for the boat. Only a couple of minutes later our contact person confirmed to us, that a coastguard vessel arrived and rescued the boat in distress.

At 1.45am the same contact person informed us about another boat quite close to the position of case 1, with 38 people on board (case 2). The group had sent a video showing that their engine had broken down as well. We called the coastguard in Mithimna again and the person on duty confirmed to us, that the first boat was escorted to Lesvos and that they will search for second one, too. At 2.10am the contact person confirmed to us that the second boat was being rescued as well.

Parallel to these distress cases close to Lesvos, at 1.30am the Alarm Phone was alerted to a boat in distress close to the Turkish coast, south east of the Greek island of Samos (case 3). Our contact person asked us to immediately call the Turkish coastguard and we did so at 1.40am. A couple of minutes later the contact person told us, that the people on board were panicking, because their engine had been taken away. He also sent us a voice message with people screaming and children crying. But at 1.50am he confirmed to us that a Turkish fishing vessel had pulled the boat in distress back to the Turkish coast. We tried to speak to the Turkish coastguard again, but for several times we could either not reach them or they refused to take notice of our information.

At 9.15am Nawal Soufi’s collective informed the Alarm Phone about a boat in distress between Foça/Turkey and the Greek island of Lesvos, with 100 people on board (case 4). Their engine had broken down and they were struggling with very high waves. We contacted the boat via WhatsApp and reached them by phone at 10am. They told us that a vessel of the Turkish coastguard accompanied them for more than an hour but did not intervene. We called the Turkish coastguard, who confirmed to us that they are following the boat, but that the waves are too high to start a rescue operation. We informed the travellers via WhatsApp that they would be rescued and asked them to stay calm and seated. At 11am we received confirmation from the travellers that the Turkish coastguard had rescued them.

In the evening of that day, at 9.40pm a contact person called us and informed us about a boat in distress in Turkish waters north of Samos, with 35 people and children on board (case 5). The informant asked us to call the Turkish coastguard, because she had lost contact to the travellers. We contacted the people on board via WhatsApp and they also asked us to call the Turkish coastguard. We did so at 10pm and the coastguard took over the case. At 10.30pm the contact person learned from the travellers that the Turkish coastguard had already rescued them.