Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 14th of April 2016

Case name: 2016_04_14-WM90
Situation: 21 people left from Nador/Morocco, rescued by Spanish Salvamento Marítimo
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Thursday the 14th of April 2016 at 3.30pm, the Alarm Phone was informed by a contact person about 21 travellers in the Western Mediterranean Sea, who had left from Nador/Morocco at 4am and were on their way to Spain. We asked for their phone number and received it at 3.50pm. At 3.53pm, we called the Spanish rescue organization Salvamento Marítimo (S.M.) in Almería/Spain. We learned that S.M. was already informed about the boat and that they had sent a rescue vessel and were also searching for the boat with the help of a helicopter. Beyond that, we were asked to find out more about the exact place of departure of the group, as mentioning Nador rather refers to a region than to a concrete place. We tried to call the travellers’ phone immediately afterwards, but did not reach them. We forwarded S.M.’s request to the contact person and he promised to find out more about the traveller’s place of departure. At 5pm, another member of the Alarm Phone, who had also been informed about the case, told us the name of the beach from which the travellers had left. We forwarded this information to S.M. via phone and e-mail. From 6pm onwards, we were able to observe the ongoing rescue operation of S.M. on marinetraffic.com and on vesselfinder.com. At 6.30pm the helicopter was circling around a given spot, while a rescue vessel was approaching this position. In the meantime we also tried to reach the travellers’ phone several times, but without success. At 7.45pm, we saw that the Spanish rescue vessel had arrived at the position of the helicopter. At 8.15pm, we called S.M. in Almería again and were told that their helicopter had found the boat and that the vessel had rescued all 21 travellers, 19 men and 2 women, who were all in a good condition. In that moment, they were already on their way to the Spanish coast. Afterwards, we informed the contact person about the successful rescue and someone in the background immediately shouted BOZA!