Two migrants died just before they could be rescued in an operation in Malta’s search and rescue zone on Tuesday evening.
Rescue NGO Sea Eye said in a statement that Alarm Phone informed Sea Eye and the relevant authorities of an emergency at sea on Tuesday afternoon.
“A boat with 59 people called for help in the Maltese search and rescue zone. The crew of the Sea-Eye 4 was able to find the boat on Tuesday evening after a five-hour search at around 7pm. It was an overcrowded, two-storey wooden boat.”
An initial revealed that four people were unconscious below deck. For the rescue crew to reach them, the people on the upper deck had to first be evacuated. In the end, it was two late for two people, who failed to make it alive.
Sea-Eye said that as the state of health of other people deteriorated drastically, the head of operations, Julie Schweickert, asked the rescue control centres in Rome and Valletta to evacuate four survivors.
The seriously injured people showed symptoms of severe fuel poisoning. The victims, who had been below deck on the boat, were unable to escape the toxic fuel vapours and had lost consciousness as a result.
The joint medical team from German Doctors and Sea-Eye was unable to determine a clear cause of death for the two deceased persons.
"We in the medical team are very sad that two people did not survive the flight. After the urgent evacuation of one patient by helicopter to Malta, we worked intensively all night in the on-board hospital to stabilise the condition of three other seriously injured patients. We are pleased that we were able to do so until the evacuation of the three people in the morning hours on Lampedusa," Gerd Klausen, Sea-Eye 4 on-board doctor said.
Sea-Eye said the Armed Forces of Malta evacuated a seriously injured person by helicopter at around 2am on Wednesday. The Sea-Eye 4 then followed an Italian coastguard ship to Lampedusa to evacuate three more emergency patients.
"Our operational year started with a very tragic rescue mission. It is important to realise how cruel it is to be trapped below deck and exposed to toxic fumes. The rescue of the survivors and the prompt evacuation of the seriously injured patients saved the lives of most of the people on board. We are incredibly saddened by the loss of two lives for whom all help came too late. Our thoughts are with their families," Sea-Eye head of search and rescue operations Jan Ribbeck said.
Sea-Eye said the Italian authorities assigned the Sea-Eye 4 to the Sicilian port of Porto Empedocle to disembark the remaining 53 survivors and the two fatalities on board. It is expected to reach Porto Empedocle on Thursday at around 10am.