A mayday call, a dash across the ocean … and 130 souls lost at sea

Last week, a dinghy full of migrants sank near Libya. Those who were part of the rescue mission tell of a needless tragedy

The weather was already turning when the distress call went out. A rubber dinghy with 130 people on board was adrift in the choppy Mediterranean waters.

On the bridge of the Ocean Viking, one of the only remaining NGO rescue boats operational in the Mediterranean, 121 nautical miles west, stood Luisa Albera, staring anxiously at her computer screen and then out at the rising storm and falling light at sea.