Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 26th of June 2018

Case name: 2018_06_26-WM270
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to emergency situations in the Western Med
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Tuesday, the 26th of June 2018, the Alarm Phone worked on 10 emergency situations in the Western Mediterranean Sea. 5 boats were rescued to Spain while the other 5 were returned to Spain.

Case 1: At 6.20am CEST we received a direct phone call from a boat carrying 7 people, including 2 women, that had left from Cap Spartel/Morocco several hours earlier. They told us that they could see a boat in the vicinity. We informed the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM) to the distressed boat at 6.45am. Although we could first see three SM vessels move toward their direction, they stopped mid-way and seemed to wait for Moroccan authorities to conduct an interception. Only in the evening did we find out that the boat was eventually intercepted by the Moroccan authorities and returned to Morocco.

Case 2: At 6.52am CEST we received a call from a contact person, alerting us to a boat that had left from Morocco several hours earlier, carrying 5 people, including 1 women. At 7.26am we informed SM to the case and passed on the GPS position which we had received. We were able to speak to them at 9.57am. They told us that they were in urgent distress and needed to be rescued quickly. At 10.04am the woman on the boat called, telling us that she was pregnant and in dire need of help. At 10.41am they called again, pleading for rescue. A few hours later we received the confirmation that they had been detected by SM and rescued to Spain.

Case 3: Shortly after received the second case, we were alerted by a contact person to a third case, a boat also carrying 5 people, including 1 woman coming from Cap Spartel. We informed SM at 8.11am and informed them about this case. The Spanish authorities told us that Moroccan authorities were in the vicinity of the boat. At 4.50pm we received the confirmation from the contact person that the boat had been intercepted by the Moroccan Navy and returned to Morocco.

Case 4: At around the same time, we were informed about the fourth boat in distress, this time carrying 7 people, including 2 women. As the other boats they had also departed from Cap Spartel during the night. We were unable to reach them directly. We learned later on that they had been intercepted and returned to Morocco.

Case 5: We informed SM about a boat carrying 8 people, including 2 women at 8.11am, after a contact person had passed their distress situation on to us. Also, in this case we were unable to speak to them directly and later found out that they had been returned to Morocco.

Case 6: At 9.46am, we received the position of a boat in distress, carrying 12 people. They had left at 4am during the night. We received updated GPS positions, but were informed later on that they had been returned to Morocco.

Case 7: At 11.30am, we were alerted by a contact person to a boat carrying 11 people, including 2 women, coming from Cap Spartel/Morocco. At 11.45am they informed us that water was entering their boat. We informed SM about the situation at 11.47am and passed on their GPS position. At 12.20pm SM confirmed that they had rescued a boat in the area and at 14.55h, we received a confirmation of rescue to Spain from the initial contact person.

Cases 8, 9 and 10: At around the same time, we received three other distress cases, concerning 11, 8 and 2 people respectively. We received the information about the rescue of the three boats to Spain via contact persons a few hours later.