2009 Mediterranean Sea migrant shipwreck

A fourth boat, carrying 350 people, was rescued by an Italian merchant ship on 29 March in the same area of sea.

It was a wooden fishing boat with a legal capacity of 50 persons and was attempting a crossing from Libya to Italy while carrying around 250 migrants.

[1] A further 77 bodies washed ashore on beaches to the west of Tripoli, including at Sebrata, on 31 March, the same day that search and rescue efforts were called off and the Libyan authorities made the news public.

[1] A second boat, similar to the one that capsized and carrying another 350 people, was rescued by an Italian merchant ship in the same area of sea on 29 March after being spotted by a nearby oil platform.

[2] The smuggling season normally runs from April to October but boats were sailing throughout the winter of 2008-9, which brings poor weather.