Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 8th of October 2018

Case name: 2018_10_08-WM342
Situation: 3 boats in the Western Mediterranean: 2 intercepted, one rescued to Spain
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:

On Monday, 8th of October, the Alarm Phone was alerted to 3 boats in distress at the Western Mediterranean. Two boats in the Strait of Gibraltar were eventually intercepted by the Moroccan Marine Royale. One boat coming from Nador was rescued to Spain.

At 08:12am CEST, we were alerted to a boat in distress in the Strait of Gibraltar, carrying 12 persons. Among them was one woman. We contacted the boat and managed to receive their position at 08:51. Shortly after, the travelers informed us that they had been intercepted by the Moroccan Marine Royale.

At 08:25am CEST we were alerted to a second boat with 14 people on board, having left from Achakkar. We managed to establish contact to the people and received their position at 11:45am. At 12:05am the travelers informed us that they were intercepted by the Marine Royale.

At 8:32am CEST we were called directly travelers from a boat in distress that had left from Nador. The connection broke several times, but we managed to find out their GPS position and that they were 8 families, 3 women, 3 minors and 3 babies. They urgently asked for help as their boat was losing air. At 08:53am we called the Moroccan Marine Royale and alerted them to the distress situation. We also alerted the Spanish authorities via Email. At 9:20am we called the Spanish rescue authority that said they rescued a boat in the area. At 11:07am we could confirm with the MRCC Madrid that the rescued boat was the one we were in contact with.