What Crew Members Say About Ocean-Ang

On Aug 25, 2020, a refugee boat sank off the southeastern Greek island of Harki. The 'Ocean Ang', enroute from Alexandria to Suez, and four other vessels received an emergency call and conducted a search-and-rescue operation near the sunken ship. The other vessels involved in the rescue mission worked from a distance looking for survivors, while the 'Ocean Ang' conducted an SAR operation near the sunken ship. The crew members of the 'Ocean Ang' rescued 41 people from the water in two hours. A total of 96 people were rescued from the sunken ship. It was one of the largest and most successful rescue operations in the Aegean Sea.

The 'Ocean Ang', enroute from Alexandria to Kavkaz, participated in the SAR operation for 96 migrants aboard the motor yacht ‘Sea Power‘ which had capsized 21 nautical miles west of Halki NW of Rhodes late on Aug 25, 2020, in the Greek SAR zone. Five castaways wree taken to the Karpathos-prefecture and 72 to Rhodes. A Malta flagged cargo m/v rescued 19 people but was forced to hand them over to one of two Turkish patrol boats which obstructed the mission. Three smugglers were arrested. They were belonging to a network in Turkey which repeatedly was involved in human trafficing to South Italy. The Turkish vessels also sought to obstruct the efforts of a Hellenic Air Force rescue helicopter to collect an injured man from the deck of the 'Ocean Ang' by intercepting the radio frequency used by the helicopter and giving different orders (in Greek with a Turkish accent). The Hellenic Coast Guard’s control center communicated with the Turkish Coast Guard several times in the evening. In the first exchange, it asked the Turks to withdraw and they asked for time to establish exactly what had occurred. In the third and final exchange, the Turkish Coast Guard claimed that the incident had occurred in an area where Turkey has a right to operate, not Greece. As one man and one child were still reported missing, the SAR operation was continued on Aug 26. Reports with photos: https://www.ekathimerini.com/256267/article/ekathimerini/news/rescue-effort-obstructed-by-turkish-boats-in-jurisdiction-row http://www.hcg.gr/node/23518