The boat operator who sent out a distress signal in the Aegean in the morning was found dead a little while ago.
After last week’s incident with the collision of ships in Chios, today a new incident involving a sailing vessel and a dead man occurred in the Aegean.
The man of American descent he was found dead in the late afternoon, in the sea area south of Lemnos. A coastguard vessel operating in the area since morning collected the man’s body and began transporting it to the island.
The sailing vessel named “Niriida” which was sailing from the port of Thessaloniki to a port in Turkey, crossing the Aegean Sea near Ai Strati issued a distress signal early this morning. The port force was immediately mobilized, but a little later NAVTEX was issued by Turkey binding the area without, however, having such jurisdiction.
This new incident is directly linked to the Turkish objections regarding search and rescue rights in the Aegean.
How the incident with the boat in the Aegean happened
Around 6:50 in the morning, a distress signal arrived at the Greek port authority from the vessel in the area east-southeast of Ai Stratis. The mobilization was immediate to carry out a search and rescue operation. Two vessels of the Hellenic Coast Guard rushed to the scene, four more vessels sailing nearby, while an Air Force helicopter was also involved in the investigations.
The strange thing about the case was that while the broadcast of the distress signal was made by the tourist boat, when the coast guard got there he found no one upon him.
The operation from the Greek side started immediately with the aim of locating the American at sea, while the boat was towed to Ai Stratis.
How is Turkey involved with the boat in the Aegean
Shortly after the Greek mobilization, Turkey issued, without having any jurisdiction, a directive to seafarers (NAVTEX) and committed the area to search and rescue.
Two vessels of the Turkish Coast Guard arrived at the scene, which, however, perceived the strengthened Greek force and finally cooperated with the Greek Coast Guard.
What applies to search and rescue in the Aegean
According to the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, search and rescue for air accidents is governed by Annex 12 of the 1944 Chicago Convention and ICAO Rules and Recommendations. The Greek area of responsibility for search and rescue, in cases of air accidents, has been defined with an area for air shipping agreement in the context of the ICAO Conference in 1952 and coincides with the Athens FIR.
As long as concerns search and rescue in cases of maritime accidents, Greece coordinates the operations in question within the Athens FIR, since it was created in the 50s.
The assumption by Greece of responsibilities for maritime search and rescue within the Athens FIR reflects the geographical reality in the region, given the scattered Greek islands in the Aegean, which allow the most immediate, rapid and efficient, from an operational point of view, the provision of services for the protection of of human life at sea. After all, this is also consistent with relevant recommendations of the IMO and the ICAO regarding the need for search and rescue areas, both for aviation and maritime accidents, to coincide with the limits of the FIRs.
THE Greece declared, in 1975, its area of responsibility for maritime search and rescue and to the Intergovernmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO), predecessor of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). Also, both at the time of signing and ratifying the 1979 Hamburg Convention, which regulates matters of maritime search and rescue and was adopted within the framework of the IMO, Greece stated that its area of responsibility coincided with the Athens FIR, a statement that was also included in the law by which the said International Convention was incorporated into the Greek legal order in 1989 (Law 1844/1989).
It is noted that the Hamburg Convention provides that the areas of responsibility of the contracting parties for the provision of search and rescue services, in cases of maritime accidents, are determined by agreement of the coastal states concerned. In this context, Greece has signed agreements for cooperation in matters of maritime search and rescue both with Italy (2000), as well as with Malta (2008) and Cyprus (2014), in which it is expressly defined that the Greek region in question responsibility coincides with the Athens FIR, while the signing of corresponding agreements with the other neighboring states is also pending.
TIn 1988, Turkey issued Regulation 1988/13559 (as amended by Regulation 2001/3275), with which it defined as its area of responsibility for the provision of search and rescue services, without specifying whether it is maritime or air accidentsan area which, in addition to the Istanbul and Ankara FIRs, includes part of the Athens FIR up to about the middle of the Aegean Sea, trapping a large part of Greek territory within a Turkish search and rescue area.
In October 2020, Turkey with its newest Regulation (3095/2020), the which specifically refers to search and rescue for both sea and air accidents, extended its area of responsibility for search and rescue in the Mediterranean – within the Athens FIR – westward to the 26th Meridian touching the external territorial waters of the eastern coast of Crete, occupying a larger part of Greek territory ( e.g. Kasos and Karpathos islands) and Greek search and rescue area.
This Turkish action means the inclusion of Greek islands, Greek territorial waters and Greek airspace in the Turkish search and rescue area, as stated by the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it clearly violates the sovereignty of Greece and the relevant international conventions.
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