Two vessels in distress near Izmir and Bodrum/Turkey, rescued

14.08.2015 / 15:39 / Aegean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations - 13th of August 2015

Case name: 2015_08_13-AEG41
Situation: Two vessels in Turkish waters, both rescued
Status of WTM Investigations: Concluded
Place of Incidents: Aegean Sea

Summary of the case: On Thursday the 13th of August 2015, at approximately 3.15am, we received a distress call from a vessel in the Aegean Sea. They told us that they had left Izmir/Turkey about an hour earlier. Shortly afterwards they called again. Despite very difficult communications due to loud background noises, we understood that Turkish authorities were already in vicinity so that their rescue can be presumed.
At 4.15am, we received a second call from Turkey. This time a group was in distress somewhere between Bodrum/Turkey and Kos/Greece. Our contact person told us that there was a group of 40 people, including women and children. Following his account they were already close to Greece. We then reached out to the Greek coastguards who stated that they had several ongoing emergency cases so that we should tell the travellers to call the international emergency number 112. At about 5.05am, our contact person passed on further details: the engine had stopped working and they had left Bodrum already around midnight. Shortly afterwards our Farsi-speaking Alarm Phone member was able to reach the travellers themselves. They were unable to pass on coordinates as their smart phones had run out of battery. We passed the phone number of the Greek coastguards on to them. At 5.50am they told us that they had been able to find their GPS position and had passed it on to the Turkish coastguards who said that they would come for rescue. For many hours no further information could be obtained until, at 11.44am, our contact person confirmed that they had been rescued by Turkey and returned there.
Credibility: UP DOWN 0
Layers »
  • 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