Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 17th of October 2019

Case name: 2018_10_17-WM421
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to two emergency situations in the Western Med
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Thursday, the 17th of October 2019, the Alarm Phone was alerted to two boats in distress in the western Mediterranean Sea. The first boat carrying 4 people was rescued to Spain. The second boat with 32 people on board, after going missing for 4 days, was eventually also rescued to the Spanish Canary Islands.

Case 1: At 1.24h CEST, the Alarm Phone was contacted by a relative of someone on a rubber boat that had left from El Hoceima/Morocco a few hours earlier. We were told that there were 4 men on board. We tried to contact the boat but could not get through. We then informed the Spanish search and rescue (SAR) organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM) at 1.43h. We also contacted MRCC Rabat at 1.52h to see whether they had found this boat in distress, but they had not. SM confirmed at 6.32h that the Spanish military police in Motril had rescued the boat at 3.50h which was later also confirmed to us by the relative.

Case 2: At 11.32h CEST, the Alarm Phone was alerted to a second boat in distress, carrying 32 people, including 7 women and a girl. They had left the evening before at 21h from Boujdour/Morocco. We tried to reach the boat but were not successful. Over the next hours, we received new phone numbers of people on board but could not get through and so we informed SM to the boat in distress.

At 16.34h, SM confirmed that they had sent a search airplane out but had so far not spotted the boat in distress. At 18.47h and 21.44h, as well as at 10.22h, 13.30h and 16.25h the next day, October 18, the authorities in Las Palmas state they know about the boat but do not yet have an update, the search was ongoing.

On October 19, the authorities in Las Palmas informed us at 15.57h that they had searched for the boat but still not found it. They instead found a boat with 14 people heading to the Canary Islands. They promised to keep searching. At 19.51h, they state they would deploy a new SAR operation with an airplane the next morning.

On October 20, Las Palmas informed us that a boat carrying 26 people had reached Lanzarote. They had not found the boat in question yet. At 13.52h, Las Palmas told us that their helicopter had spotted a boat with at least 20 people. At 16.52h, Las Palmas confirmed that they were conducting a SAR operation. At 20.23h Las Palmas, told us that a boat was rescued with 33 people on board, including 8 women and 2 children. They had been at sea for about 5 days. We later received the confirmation that this was the boat in question.