Freighter BLUE SKY M has reportedly sent a distress signal due to suspected armed people on board. The latest position of the freighter was 3 nautical miles south of the island of Othonoi in the North-West of the island of Corfu in the Ioanian Sea and within Greek territorial waters. The distress signal was sent around 12 o’ clock noon time.
According to Greek media and based on preliminary information, somebody from the ship called the European emergency phone number <112> and claimed that the ship was in distress and that many armed people were on board.
The Italian coast guard informed the Greek authorities. However, a local news website reported already yesterday, Monday, that the BLUE SKY M was under surveillance by the Greek Coast Guard.
One Sikorsky helicopter took off from Corfu and is on the way to BLUE SKY M, while the frigate “Navarino” is reportedly sailing towards the ship in distress. The frigate of the Greek Navy was in the area in the context of rescue operation of the Norman Atlantic ferry.
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BLUE SKY M has Moldavian flag and its destination was Rijeka in Croatia.
Greek media suggest that undocumented migrants may be on board.
Interesting is a report of local news website LefkadaPress.gr, that uploaded on December 29th:
“Thriller between Kefalonia and Lefkada this time with the freighter “Blue sky M” which sails off Kefalonia towards Lefkada and, according to our information, it carries about 400 immigrants mostly Syrians. It has been monitored by vessels of the Coast Guard and nobody knows what will happen. Authorities of Lefkada have been informed and we all hope to avoid another tragedy.”
Today, LefkadaPress wrote that there were 450 migrants on board and that a Super Puma was on the way to Blue Sky M.
According to state NERIT TV, there are 600-700 migrants on board and a comercial ship and a Coast Guard vessel are on their way to the spot.
It is not clear where the freighter came from.
Around 01:30 pm, I saw the position of BLUE SKY M in MarineTraffic.com but it later disappeared from the vessels surveillance tool.
UPDATE 1 06:30 pm GR time
“No emergency, no danger”. This is what apparently the captain of the BLUE SKY M told the crew on board of Greek frigate “Navarino” that approached the freighter sometime in the afternoon.
Two helicopters from the Greek Navy and the Air-force that flew at noon time over the freighter had reportedly spotted “nobody” on the deck of the freighter.
Citing sources from the Greek Coast Guard, Proto Thema notes, that the emergency phone call was not made by a crew member but most likely by some one from the passengers.
“We have no water, blankets, food,” the caller told Greek authorities.
It looks as if short after the emergency call, the freighter made a drastic change of course westwards to Italy and “exited the Greek territorial waters at 5:30 pm” Greek time, media report.
The BLUE SKY M had left Korfez Port in the Sea of Marmara in Turkey and its destination was Rijeka in Croatia.
It is considered as certain that the vessel carries undocumented migrants, however their number remains still vague between 400 and 700 people.
There are still questions open as to why the mystery vessel is heading to Italy and not Croatia, but most probably it will be the Italians who will have to find that out.
UPDATE 2 10:46 pm Greek Time
According to unconfirmed reports, a rapid deployment team from the Italian Navy is now on board of the BLUE SKY M and in control of the vessel heading to Puglia, South Italy. Hundreds of Syrian nationals are believed to be on board.
@ItalianNavy rapid deployment team now on board MV Blue Sky M and in control of vessel heading to#Puglia. Hundreds of#Syria nats on board
According to VesselFinder.com, the position of BLUE SKY M was near Italy and the screen shot was taken at 16UTC by BBC news-editor James Bryant.
