Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 29th of September 2017

Case name: 2017_09_29-CM117
Situation: Alarm Phone directly called by 6 people in distress on their way to Sicily, rescued to Italy
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Central Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Friday the 29th of September 2017, the Alarm Phone was directly called by a group of 6 travellers, who had left from Zuwarah/Libya at about 2am and were heading north in the direction of Sicily in a wooden fishing boat. At 10.36am, they told us that it had started to rain and that the wind and the waves were getting stronger. After receiving their GPS position, at 11.26am, we alerted the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) and forwarded all the information we had received so far by phone and also via email. Later on, we recharged the credit of the travellers’ satellite phone and received another call, in which they stressed that their situation was getting worse. At 1.30pm, the Italian MRCC confirmed to us that they had initiated a rescue operation for this boat and asked us to call back later, in order to receive further updates. 15 minutes later, we talked again to the travellers and informed them that rescue was on its way. In the same call, they told us that they could see a black, white and red vessel with the name Yunova/Geneva. We forwarded this information to the Italian MRCC at 1.50pm, and again received updated coordinates of the travellers at 2.30pm, which we then forwarded to the MRCC at 2.34pm. After another exchange and forwarding of an updated GPS position at about 4.30pm, the Italian MRCC directly called the Alarm Phone at 5.50pm and asked us to communicate to the travellers that they should stop their engine, because they were going too fast in northern direction and the rescue vessel could not follow them. We did so immediately afterwards. At 6.20pm, the travellers called us back, confirmed that they had stopped their engine and told us that they could see a helicopter above them. In another call at 7pm, they informed us that a rescue vessel was close to them and that they were about to be rescued. Although, later on, we were not able to reach the travellers anymore, at 3.30am of the next day, the brother of one of the travellers called us and confirmed to us that the group of 6 had been rescued and brought to Italy.