Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 17th of December 2015

Case name: 2015_12_17-AEG160
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 3 distress cases in the Aegean, near Farmakonisi and Samos
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Thursday the 17th of December 2015 the Alarm Phone was alerted to 3 distress cases in the Aegean, 1 case near Farmakonisi and 2 cases near Samos. In all cases, the travellers’ safe arrival on land could be confirmed: The travellers on the way to Farmakonisi had to discontinue their journey, but made it back to Turkey. One boat near Samos was saved by the Greek Coastguard and the other's safe arrival in Greece was also confirmed.

Case 1: Just after midnight, we received a WhatsApp message and later a Facebook message from different contact persons about a boat in distress between Didim, Turkey and Farmakonisi, but still in Turkish waters. There were about 35 travellers on board with 15 children. The first contact person urged us to call the Turkish Coast Guard, as the boat was in urgent distress, he said. We could not reach the travellers ourselves and they did not reply to our WhatsApp messages, but we informed the Turkish Coast Guard, who promised to take care of the case. At ten to 1am, a third contact person wrote us about the case, with new coordinates, showing that the boat had moved closer to Farmakonisi - but, the contact person informed us that the engine had stopped working now. She asked us to call the Greek Coastguard. Again we sent a WhatsApp message to the travellers, but then also informed the Greek Coastguard, who was very cooperative. They told us that they had spoken to the travellers 5 minutes before and that the travellers had not been in need of help. At 1.30am the Greek Coast Guard called us back to ask if we had any news from the boat, as they had tried to call them again and had not reached them. Our contact person had just spoken to the travellers and insisted that they had asked for help. We transferred this message and the latest coordinates to the Greek Coastguard, who told us that they had sent a patrol boat. At 2am, the Greek Coast Guard called us again, asking for a new position, as their patrol boat had reached the latest position and had not encountered the travellers. The patrol boat stayed in the area and searched within a 6 miles radius around the latest position of the boat, but did not encounter them. They had also made an enquiry with the phone company to see whether the number of the travellers had been connected to the Greek phone network, but it had not. We tried to get more information about the travellers and their position via the contact person, but the travellers could not be reached anymore. Throughout the morning, we tried to get in touch with the travellers and the contact persons, but we could not reach anyone. At 10am, the travellers finally responded to our WhatsApp messages, saying that they were safe and had made it back to Turkey with their own boat.

Case 2: at five to 6am, a contact person informed us via Facebook about a distress case involving 40 travellers near Samos. The contact person provided us with a picture showing the location of the boat and with a number, which however could not be reached anymore. We did not call the Coast Guard right away, as we only had the screenshot of the boat's position and no exact coordinates. At 7am our contact person informed the Greek Coast Guard, who promised to send help. At 5pm we received a confirmation that the boat had been rescued.

Case 3: At 10:31am, we received another Facebook alert about a boat in distress near Samos. We forwarded its position to the Greek Coastguard, but a few minutes later, the contact person told us that the boat was safe - the distress call had been sent early in the morning. We told the Greek Coastguard that the boat was safe.