Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 21st of May 2018

Case name: 2018_05_21_WM_234
Situation: 10 travellers left from Tangier and rescued to Spain
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Monday 21st May, at 7.40am, the Alarm Phone received a message that a boat with ten people, nine men and a woman, had left from Morocco. At 8,30am, the Alarm Phone received the position of the boat. At 8.35am, Salvamiento Maritimo had, according to the contact person, reached the location of boat but did not rescue them. At 9.00am, the Alarm Phone called the boat, and the travellers said that they were tired but OK and alone at sea, and asked the Alarm Phone to call Salvamiento Maritimo. The Alarm Phone shift team stayed in close contact with the boat and was able to receive their updated positions regularly. At 9.50am, the Alarm Phone called Salvamento Maritimo in Tariffa/Cadiz with the information about the boat. SM said they had rescued another boat with 10 people 20 minutes earlier, but this was a different boat. At 10.15am, the Alarm Phone called S.M. again, and reported the updated position. At 10.58am the Alarm Phone received news that the travellers could see the Salvamiento Maritimo boat, but that the SAR boat did not see them. At 11.00am, the Alarm Phone passed on this information to Salvamiento Maritimo, who said that there were many boats, and this case was not “in their area”, but they noted the info. At 11.38am, the Alarm Phone called SM to pass on a new position, and SM informed us that a boat with ten people had been rescued recently. The Alarm Phone called back the travellers, who informed us that water was entering the boat. At 11.46am, the Alarm Phone called SM to pass on the information about the urgency of situation; they said that they had been in touch with the travellers, and they were speeding up the rescue operation. On vesselfinder we were able to monitor the rescue boat, Salvamar Arcturus, and could see that it was moving towards the travellers. At midday, the Alarm Phone read on Twitter that Salvamar Arcturus rescued 23 people, but it was not clear if this specific boat was part of the rescue operation. The Alarm Phone tried repeatedly to reach the travellers, but unsuccessfully. At 12.12pm, the Alarm Phone received confirmation that SM had rescued a boat with 9 men and 1 woman, and confirmation again at 12.16 that the travellers were safe on SM’s boat.