Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 31th of October 2017

Case name: 2017_10_31-WM173
Situation: 23 travellers in distress brought back to Morocco
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:

On Tuesday, 31st of October, at 07:17pm, a contact person informed us about a boat in distress that had left Asilah towards Spain at 2pm. The engine of the boat had stopped. The distress was very urgent and the travellers asked us to inform both Spanish and Moroccan authorities. At 7:30pm we called Salvamento Maritimo Tarifa and passed the information. They said they were in contact with Moroccan Marine Royale that would have already started a rescue operation, as the boat was still in Moroccan territorial waters. We passed the information to the travellers and sent an email to the respective authorities to document the alert.
At 8:25pm we called the boat again, and the travellers told us they hadn't seen a rescue ship yet. At 8:30 we called the Marine Search and Rescue Centre in Morocco. They stated they had already launched a rescue operation and that a helicopter was searching the boat. On Marine Traffic we see the Spanish helicopter of Salvamento Maritimo in the area. We called them again but didn't get further information.
At 8:43pm we received a GPS position from the boat. We passed it to Salvamento Maritimo that confirmed that they had located the boat, but stated they had to wait for the Moroccan Marine as it would be the responsibility of Morocco to conduct a rescue operation.
We continuously tried to reach the boat but couldn't establish a connection. One hour after the location of the boat had been confirmed, at 9:43pm, we called both Spanish and Moroccan authorities again. Still Salvamento Maritimo was waiting for the Moroccan authority to act, which itself repeated they would have launched a rescue operation but would still wait for an updated position of the boat by the Spanish helicopter. We followed the helicopter on Marine Traffic and saw it leaving the area at 10:05pm. At 10:28 we called Salvamento Maritimo again. They said they had to withdraw the helicopter as it was running out of fuel. At 11:27pm we called the Moroccan authorities that said the rescue operation was still going on. At 0:41am we called them again and they confirmed the rescue of everyone on board. Also our contact person confirmed the rescue.