Incidents · distress

Distress signal received on 121.5 mhz in 37-02.4N 016-42.0E

Ionian Sea · HYDROLANT 4235/00

What this record establishes

Archived notice · 2001-02-09 11:10Z

This notice comes from the historical archive. Its archived status does not establish when or how the reported situation ended.

Source and dates: NGA MSI broadcast-warn JSON (archive, frozen 2024-05) · MRCC ROME AOR-E EGC #159 260746Z DEC 00; MRCC ETEL AOR-E EGC #145 251920Z DEC 00. Issued 2000-12-26 08:05Z. First collected 2026-08-17 13:38Z; last seen in collection 2026-08-17 15:46Z. Collection dates record ingestion, not a new incident or a fresh field observation.
Location covered: Ionian Sea. The parsed report position is 37.040, 16.700. It is a position in the source message, not a live location. Check the original wording for limits and qualifications.

Original warning text

1. DISTRESS SIGNAL RECEIVED ON 121.5 MHZ IN 37-02.4N 016-42.0E.
   VESSELS IN VICINITY REQUESTED TO KEEP A SHARP LOOKOUT, ASSIST
   IF POSSIBLE. REPORTS TO MRCC ROME, TELEX: 4361 1172, 4361 4156,
   4361 4103, FAX: 00 390 6592 2737, 00 390 6590 84793.
2. CANCEL HYDROLANT 4232/00(37).

Reading this warning

Distress signal received: A rescue centre has received an alert — from a beacon, a radio call or a satellite terminal — and is asking ships to look.
Position (degrees and minutes): How warnings write positions: degrees, a hyphen, then minutes, with N/S and E/W — 49-40.8N 003-43.8W.
Keep a sharp lookout: A request to every ship in the area to watch for the vessel, people or object described.
Assist if possible: The second half of the standard rescue request: ships able to help are asked to do so.
MRCC (Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre): A rescue coordination centre for maritime cases only, such as MRCC Fort-de-France or MRCC Vietnam.
Cancellation reference: A line that cancels an earlier warning by its number, such as CANCEL HYDROLANT 1085/12.
HYDROLANT: The U.S. long-range warning series for Atlantic waters outside NAVAREA IV, including the eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and adjoining seas.

All warning terms →

Collected reports in this area · distress & casualty cases (archived)

197 within 180 nm since 1999 · 0 in the last 12 months · 0 listed in force now

Counts include repeat notices about the same situation. NGA archive coverage ends 2024-05; live collection began 2026-08-17. The period between them is incomplete. An empty year is not evidence that no hazards occurred.

Month of issue in the collected archive

All available years combined. Uneven collection and repeat bulletins affect these counts; this chart does not measure the seasonality or probability of incidents.

Nearby notices listed in force · within 120 nm

Submarine cable and rov works days 280000 UTC sep 26 to 071000 UTC oct 26 at points: 36-12.78N 015-52.58E…Cable ops · 64.2 nm

Worldwide in the collected sources

0 distress & casualty cases (archived) listed in force · see all

Record snapshot 2026-10-03 07:55Z; source collection times vary.

Incidents

Search-and-rescue broadcasts, published only once a case has been closed for 30 days: groundings, sinkings, capsizes, fires, man overboard, overdue vessels. Nothing here is live. All current distress & casualty cases (archived) →

Not for navigation. This is a re-rendering of an official navigational warning for awareness; mariners must use official NAVAREA broadcasts and their national MSI service.