19/09: 35 travellers rescued by Ocean Viking

20.09.2019 / 14:19 / Central Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 19th of September 2019
Case name: 2019_09_19-CM193
Situation: 35 travellers rescued by Ocean Viking in the Maltese SAR zone.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: At 1:47pm CEST of Thursday the 19th of September, the Alarm Phone received a call from a boat in distress carrying 35 travellers including 6 children. The boat had departed from Libya and the GPS position that we received indicated that it was in the Maltese Search and Rescue zone. The travellers told us that their engine was no longer working. We soon realized that this was probably the boat that Moonbird had spotted and informed us about, a few minutes before we received the distress call. Moonbird had also informed the NGO vessel Ocean Viking that was in proximity of the boat in distress. At 2.20pm we sent an email to Maltese authorities with the information we had, including our assumption that this case was the same case spotted by Moonbird. In the afternoon we received a new position which we passed on to Ocean Viking and the Maltese coastguard. At 8.23pm our shift team called Maltese authorities asking for news. They told us that an NGO vessel was rescuing a boat in distress at the location of the last GPS position we had sent them. At 10.08pm Ocean Viking confirmed the rescue.

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