U.S. Navy Destroyer Helps Rescue 31 People in Eastern Med

On Tuesday, the crew of a U.S. Navy destroyer helped rescue a group of 31 migrants in the Mediterranean, with assistance from a Good Samaritan merchant tanker. 

On July 16, while operating at a position between Libya and Crete, a helicopter from USS Bulkeley spotted a vessel that appeared to be dead in the water. The occupants seemed to be signaling that they were in distress, so the aircrew reported the casualty to the crew on the destroyer. 

In response, Bulkeley's crew worked with the appropriate rescue coordination center to arrange for the best possible response. The destroyer asked a nearby merchant tanker, the Seaways Sabine, if it could divert and pick up the survivors. 

The Seaways Sabine was under way from Trieste to Egypt, and the casualty vessel was near to her intended route. AIS data shows that she reached the scene late Tuesday evening, and her crew retrieved 31 people from the distressed craft. The survivors had been drifting for days, and three of them needed medical attention. 

Seaways Sabine asked Bulkeley for medical assistance, and Bulkeley transferred medical corpsmen over to the tanker in a RHIB. The responders were able to stabilize two of the victims; the third passed away despite their intervention, including an attempt at CPR. 

The remaining survivors stayed aboard Seaways Sabine as the tanker got back under way. The vessel arrived at an anchorage off Alexandria on the morning of July 18.