Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations 10th of August 2015

Case name: 2015_08_10-WM40
Situation: Two vessels in distress in Western Med, one intercepted by Moroccan Navy, one rescued by Salvamento Maritimo
Status of WTM Investigations: Concluded
Place of Incidents: Western Mediterranean Sea, Morocco

Summary of the Cases: On Monday the 10th of August, at approximately 8am, the Alarm Phone was alerted to a vessel in distress in the Western Mediterranean Sea, carrying 11 people. The vessel had left from Malabata during the night and was without an engine. We contacted the travellers and, in several phone calls due to repeatedly interrupted communications, they reported that they could see two vessels in vicinity. We then turned to the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo and informed them about the vessel. They confirmed that they had already heard about this emergency case but required further information on their position to launch a rescue operation. For a while afterwards, the travellers could not be reached until approximately 10:11am when they said that they could see a helicopter approaching. This was the last conversation we had with them. We contacted Salvamento Maritimo and they confirmed at 12:40pm that the vessel had been rescued at about an hour earlier. All 11 people were fine and would be disembarked in Tarifa/Spain.

At 12:30pm, our shift team received a direct distress call from a vessel that had left from Tanger/Morocco, carrying 7 men and 2 women. After the initial call, contact could not be re-established for hours. At about 2:23pm, we spoke to one of the travellers who said that they had been intercepted by the Moroccan Navy and returned to Morocco.