Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 16th of July 2018
Case name: 2018_07_16-WM287
Situation: 3 boats, 2 returned by their own forces, one returned with help from fisherman, 3 people missing
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Sunday, July 16th, The Alarm Phone was alerted to 3 boats in distress. Two of the boats returned to Morocco without external aid. One boat returned to Morocco with the help of a fisherman. 3 people are still missing.

At 9.53 CEST we were informed from a contact person about a boat with 12 people (including 2 women) that had left Morocco the previous evening. The Alarm Phone tried several times to make contact with the boat but there was no answer until 10.40. At that time the boat informed the shift team of The Alarm Phone that they were not in distress. However, at 15.33, the boat again made contact, informing The Alarm Phone that they needed rescuing. The Alarm Phone informed Salvamento Maritimo and Marine Royale. The boat remained out of touch for several hours. At 21.56, the original contact person informed The Alarm Phone that the boat had managed to return to Morocco on its own. (Last position: 35.579215, -6.010094)

At 11.05 CEST, The Alarm Phone received a call from a boat without an engine with 12 people (including 4 women). Communication between the boat and shift members was spotty until 15.50, at which point the boat called to ask The Alarm Phone to call Salvamento Maritimo or Marine Royale. The boat was in distress and the traveller were very stressed: water was entering the boat. The Alarm Phone called Salvamento Maritimo and Marine Royale. From 16.05 onwards, the shift team was in constant contact with the Marine Royale (because the boat was in Moroccan waters) as well as the travellers on the boat, who were in a great deal of stress because of the emergency situation (in addition to water entering the boat, several passengers were sick and vomiting). At 22.12, the contact person informed the Alarm Phone that the passengers were trying to make it back to Morocco themselves as Marine Royale had still not come to rescue them. The Alarm Phone received confirmation at 2.30 and again at 5.10 the following day that the boat had returned to Morocco and all passengers were safe.

At 14.10 The Alarm Phone received information about a boat of 9 people (7 men, 2 women, 1 child). The shift members called the boat, and the travellers indicated that they were tired and wanted the shift team to call Salvamento Maritimo or Marine Royale to be rescued. The shift team called Salvamento Maritimo. Contact with the boat was lost although the Alarm Phone tried to call the boat several times. The Alarm Phone shift team called Salvamento Maritimo and Marine Royale to try to get information. The shift team tried all day to contact the boat, and get more information from contact persons in Morocco and Europe as well as the various Coast Guards, but there was no information. The following day, the contact person informed The Alarm Phone that two people from the boat were missing, because they had jumped into the water, and so the shift team told the Marine Royale and contact persons to let them know if they had information. The Marine Royale called back to say that three people had jumped into the water and were rescued by a fishing boat and then hospitalized in Tangier. For the rest of the day and into the next day, the shift team tried to make contact with the people who had been hospitalized, but they received no confirmation.