What happened in Pylos ? Part 1: “Everybody can see that this boat is not going to survive”

In this episode of VC Mytillini, I take a closer look at the needless loss of life that occurred during the shipwreck that happened on the morning of the 13th of June this year.

On the morning of the 13th of June near the Greek island of Pylos, a dangerously overcrowded fishing trawler filled with migrants on a dangerous journey to find a better life in Europe capsizes. Of these 750 people on board, only 105 were rescued and 82 bodies were recovered. It was the biggest shipwreck to happen since 2015.

Soon after the shipwreck, it became clear that the Hellenic Coastguard, who were in charge of the rescue mission, did not do their job properly. Over the next days, as the survivors started to speak about what happened, many things were discovered, and their was a better overview of what happened. Interestingly, the initial statements made by the Hellenic Coastguard differ greatly from what the survivors explained. Later a consortium of journalists uncovered more irregularities in the coastguards story.

Why did the Hellenic Coastguard act the way that it did? And why did they change their story afterwards ? I will try to find out in this first part of a two part series on the Pylos shipwreck, with Viviana Di Bartolo, the coordinator in charge of Search and Rescue at SOS Humanity and María Martín, a journalist who works for the Spanish newspaper El Pais.

This first part will focus on the events preceding the shipwreck and the tragedy itself. In the next episode, I will take a closer look at the aftermath which includes the treatment of the survivors, the attempted cover up of the Greek Authorities and the investigations that brought the truth to light.

María Martín articles she worked on for El Pais:

https://elpais.com/internacional/2023-06-29/los-supervivientes-del-naufragio-en-el-jonico-acusan-a-las-autoridades-griegas-la-guardia-costera-nos-remolco-a-gran-velocidad-y-volcamos.html

https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-06-30/survivors-of-the-shipwreck-in-the-mediterranean-accuse-greek-authorities-the-coast-guard-towed-us-at-high-speed-and-we-capsized.html

https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-06-20/greece-imposes-silence-around-shipwreck-of-overcrowded-migrant-boat.html

More about SOS Humanity:

https://sos-humanity.org/en/non-governmental-search-and-rescue-in-the-mediterranean

Music via freesoundarchive.org

Tracks:

Gregor Quendel: Harmonic III & Harmonic VI

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/gregor-quendel

Supermash – Generic

https://freemusicarchive.org/music/slambience-1