"Honestly, those two guys... I wish they were dead." On May 31, 2023, Marc Bonnafous confided in a close friend. An investigation has been underway for a year and a half into the sinking of a migrant boat in the Channel in November 2021. Although he had not been director of the Centre Régional Opérationnel de Surveillance et de Sauvetage (Regional Surveillance and Rescue Operations Centre, known as CROSS) in Gris-Nez, northern France, for several months, Bonnafous was concerned about developments in this case, which threatened maritime rescue services.
A week earlier, nine of his former subordinates were taken into police custody on suspicion of failing to assist a person in danger. In the days following the tragedy, which claimed the lives of at least 27 people, the two survivors – the "two guys" referred to by Bonnafous – told the press they had repeatedly called French and UK rescue services to report that their boat was sinking, to no avail. "When I saw that the two survivors were starting to tell the police that there had been issues during the [rescue] operation, I thought, whoa, this stinks," he told his friend over the phone – unaware that investigators were listening in.
In total, around 10 people working at CROSS or on the patrol boat Flamant, which was out at sea on the night of the sinking, have been wire-tapped. The content of the recordings, which Le Monde has accessed, reveals the extent to which the controversy is embarrassing the military leadreship, and the maneuvers taken by the French Navy to keep a close watch on developments in the investigation. The navy's aim is to prepare those implicated, even if it means sidestepping the confidentiality of the investigation.
According to Le Monde's information, confirmed by the Paris public prosecutor's office, an investigation into breaches of confidentiality has been opened, following a tip-off from the investigating judges in this case and a complaint lodged by the civil parties.
These suspicions of a breach of secrecy focus on a short period in the spring of 2023, a few days before the CROSS and Flamant personnel were taken into custody, at the end of which seven were indicted for failure to assist a person in danger – a period of considerable tension for the navy.
On May 11, 2023, the crew of the Flamant did not yet know that they would be summoned by investigators from the Gendarmerie Maritime's research section in Cherbourg, northwestern France, at the end of the month. However, the French Navy had already been informed and decided to warn its servicemen. The message was delivered by a senior officer, Vice Admiral François-Xavier Blin, then Inspector of the French Navy. "Eight members of your crew (...) will be summoned. Now normally the date is not supposed to be known," Vice Admiral Blin confided to Audrey M, the commanding officer of the Flamant.
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