Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigation – 14th of May 2015

Case name: 2015_05_14-WM6
Situation: Vessel with 11 passengers in distress in the Western Mediterranean Sea
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Thursday the 14th of May 2015, the shift team of the Alarm Phone received a phone call from a Moroccan number in the morning, informing us of a vessel that had left Cap Spartel near Tangier in order to reach Spain. The contact person, himself not on the vessel, forwarded a mobile phone number of one of the passengers and told our team that the 11 passengers had encountered difficulties with their vessel. While the shift team was unable to reach them directly, the contact person stayed in touch with with the passengers.

The shift team alerted the Spanish rescue agency Salvamento Maritimo in Tarifa to the situation of distress. In a very cooperative manner, Salvamento Maritimo informed the team that a vessel had already been spotted in the sea by a helicopter and that a vessel in close vicinity would rescue them straightaway. There was a high probability that this was the vessel in question as Salvamento Maritimo confirmed that there were 11 people on board, 10 men and 1 woman. About an hour later, our contact person informed us that the people in distress were now on board of a Red Cross vessel and, again about 1 hour later, the activist collective Caminando Fronteras tweeted that the vessel with 11 passengers was rescued.