Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 16th of September 2019
Case name: 2018_09_16-CM191
Situation: 90 travellers were rescued by Italian coastguards under order of Malta.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: In the evening of Monday the 16th of September the Alarm Phone was alerted to a boat in distress carrying 90 travellers (including 5 women and 7 children) that had departed from Zuwarah. After receiving their GPS position, at 9.35 pm CEST we informed the Maltese coastguard. Twenty minutes later the Maltese coastguard called us back and informed us that they had sent a plane to confirm the position of the boat. At 10.39 pm we received a new position from the travellers, who also told us that they had not seen a plane yet. We immediately passed on the new position to the Maltese coastguard who informed us that the plane’s estimated time of arrival at the boat’s position was in ten minutes. At 11.17 pm the NGO vessel Ocean Viking informed us that they were heading towards the boat in distress. Our shift team spoke again to Maltese authorities who confirmed that the plane had spotted the boat and that they had sent a patrol vessel to the area and had contacted a nearby oil-tank to proceed to rescue if needed. They also confirmed that Ocean Viking was on the way. At 00.38 am the travellers called us again; they were exhausted, panicking and in urgent need of help, they told us that they were drowning. They also gave us an updated GPS position which we immediately passed on to the relevant authorities. As the boat was closer to Italy than Malta, at 01.10 am we called the Italian coastguard who confirmed that they had received our email but did not give us any further information. At the same time, we received an email from Maltese authorities which informed us that a rescue vessel and a patrol aircraft were on their way. They had also contacted the Italian coastguard asking if they could assist. During the following hours we kept in contact with the travellers and passed on their updated position to Maltese and Italian coastguards several times. At 04.09 am Maltese authorities informed us that the Italian coastguard had dispatched two naval assets whose estimated time of arrival was two hours later. At 04.44 am we received confirmation from Maltese authorities that the boat had been rescued by the Italian coastguard.