Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 29th of May 2018

Case name: 2018_05_29-WM238
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to emergency situation in the Western Med
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Tuesday, the 29th of May 2018, our Alarm Phone shift team was alerted to a boat in distress at 00.40am by a contact person. We received the information that there were 5 people on a boat that had left from Cap Spartel and were trying to reach Tarifa/Spain. At 00.47am, we tried to reach the boat, but were not successful. At 1.20am, the contact person asked us to reach out to the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM). We were able to inform SM at 2.22am about the situation and they said they would start a search and rescue operation. At 8.30am SM informed us that a rescue operation was ongoing, to which Moroccan forces had been called as well. At 9.10am, SM had still not located the boat. The Moroccan Navy informed us at 12.20pm that they had rescued two boats during the night, and on one of the boats had been 5 people. However, only four had been found alive, while one person had gone missing. Our contact person in Morocco, however, stated that the boat had been rescued to Spain, but not only had one person gone missing, another person had been found dead. In the afternoon, SM confirmed that 3 people and 1 dead person had been brought to Tarifa/Spain. The Guardia Civil Tarifa confirmed the information of SM.