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Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 19th of December 2015

Case name: 2015_12_19-AEG161
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 5 distress cases in the Aegean, near Samos, Lesvos and Farmakonisi
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Aegean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Saturday, the 19th of December 2015 the Alarm Phone was alerted to 5 distress cases in the Aegean with about 120 travellers involved in total. 4 cases concerned situations of distress at sea, near Samos, Lesvos and Farmakonisi and one case stranded travellers on Farmakonisi. In all cases of distress at sea, the travellers were rescued by the Greek Coastguard and safely arrived in Greece. The group stranded on Farmakonisi was probably transferred on Sunday morning to Leros.

Case 1: At shortly before 5am, we received a Whats App message about a boat in distress, carrying about 40 travellers, including 14 children. The boat was in Greek waters, north west of the island of Samos. The last contact between our contact person and the travellers in distress had been 20 minutes earlier. We called the travellers, but they did not respond. At 5.11am, we informed the Greek Coast Guard, who promised to send a boat. At 5.30am our contact person told us that the travelers were really close to Samos, but that they had problems with their engine and that they were without Internet. We tried several times unsuccessfully to reach out to the boat. At 7am, we called the Coast Guard again, because our contact person told us that the boat had still not been rescued. The Coast Guard said that they sent a boat and that they had located the travellers, but that the weather conditions were bad. However, just ten minutes later, the Coast Guard rescued the boat, as our contact person confirmed to us.

Cases 2 and 3: At 8.20am and at 12.40am, we received WhatsApp alerts about two boats in distress near Lesvos. The first boat carried about 45 persons and was in danger of capsizing. We immediately reached out to the boat. The travellers confirmed that they were in distress and asked us for help. We forwarded the distress call to the Greek Coast Guard and continuously updated them about the position of the boat. At quarter past 9am, the travellers informed us that they had been saved by the Greek Coastguard and brought to Lesvos. On the second boat were about 50 passengers. They had run out of fuel and asked us for help. Again we informed the Greek Coastguard, who rescued the travellers, as our contact person confirmed to us at quarter to 1pm.

Case 4: At 9:20pm, we were informed about 35 persons in a boat near Farmakonisi. They made it to Farmakonisi, as our contact person told us at 10:22pm. We contacted the Port Authorities of Leros and Athens to help the travellers. The Port Authorities of Athens promised to send help. Unfortunately, we lost contact to the travellers at this point, but on Sunday morning, the boat Ilias T. crossed from Farmakonisi to Leros, hopefully having picked up the travellers.

Case 5: At 11.13pm we received a WhatsApp alert about a boat in distress because of a broken engine, between Turkey and Farmakonisi. We managed to reach the travellers, who told us that they were about 50 passengers on board. They told us that they were close to Farmakonisi and that their engine had started working again. They could still move towards the island. However, at 11.28pm we received a WhatsApp message that the engine had stopped working again and that we should call the Greek Coast Guard. At 11:43pm we informed the Coast Guard, who promised to check on the boat. We sent a WhatsApp message to the travellers, telling them that we had informed the Coast Guard. The travellers did not answer to any calls during the night. On Sunday morning, at 7.42am, we finally reached them: They had been rescued by the Coast Guard and were safe in Greece.