SITUATION RECAP
All times are in UTC +1.
On March 17, Ocean Viking leaves the port of Syracuse, Sicily.
On March 25, Ocean Viking was alerted to a boat in distress in international waters off Libya by civil emergency hotline Alarm Phone. While proceeding to the distress case, the Libyan coastguard patrol vessel 656 arrived on the scene, dangerously approaching the Ocean Viking. All attempts by the bridge’s team to contact the Libyan coastguard vessel via VHF went unanswered while the crew of the Libyan coastguard patrol vessel started behaving aggressively, threatening with guns and firing gunshots in the air.
As the safety of the crew was under threat, the Ocean Viking sailed away from the scene at full speed, while the Libyan coastguard continued to fire shots. Civil surveillance aircraft Seabird 2, operated by the NGO Sea Watch, monitored the distress case.
