Airborne is a department of Sea-Watch e.V. which monitors the Central Mediterranean using the reconnaissance aircraft Moonbird and Seabird, in order to document human rights violations and spot people in distress. These operations are conducted together with the Swiss NGO Humanitarian Pilots Initiative. The purpose of the following Annual Report 2020 is to provide an overview…
This factsheet presents a summary of distress cases witnessed by Sea-Watch’s Airborne crew from the aircraft Moonbird.* From November 2020 to January 2021, primarily due to bad weather in the Central Mediterranean Sea, we flew only 16 missions with a total flight time of 73 hours and 22 minutes. We spotted around 165 persons in…
Merchant Vessel Involvement in Sea Rescue Operations Overview of relevant cases spotted by Airborne Operations in 2020 Due to the seizure of NGO vessels and the lack of a state-led European Search-and-Rescue (SAR) programme, operations which retrieve people from distress at sea currently rely primarily on the shipping industry. Captains and crews of merchant vessels…
This factsheet outlines a summary of the distress cases witnessed in October 2020 by Sea-Watch’s Airborne crew from the aircraft Moonbird and Seabird.* In October 2020, due to criminalization measures against Moonbird, we were only able to fly 7 missions, with a total flight time of 61 hours and 05 minutes. We spotted around 217…
This factsheet outlines a summary of the distress cases witnessed in September 2020 by Sea-Watch’s Airborne crew from the aircraft Moonbird and Seabird. In September 2020 we flew 8 missions, with a total flight time of 65 hours and 06 minutes. We spotted around 333 persons in distress. Since 04.09., Moonbird has been grounded by…
