Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 08th of January 2019Case name: 2019_01_08-WM364
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 8th of January 2018, the Alarm Phone was alerted to two boats in distress off the coast of Morocco. The first boat carried 45 people and was at severe risk of sinking. They were found and rescued by the Moroccan Navy and returned to Morocco. The second boat carried 10 people and was eventually rescued to Spain.
Case 1: The Alarm Phone was contacted at 5.06am CET by a contact person and alerted to a boat carrying 45 people, including 6 women. We were told that they were in severe distress as their boat had already started to sink. We spoke to the people on the boat at 5.11am and they were clearly in panic, shouting for help. We informed both the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM) as well as MRCC Rabat. At 5.28am we were able to speak to the boat again and asked them for a GPS position. We received a location ten minutes later via our contact person. We informed the Spanish authorities about their location at 5.40am and the Moroccan authorities at 5.47am. At 6.19am, we received an updated position from the boat which we forwarded to the Spanish authorities. We spoke to the travellers again at 6.39am and they told us that their engine had broken down and people were already in the water, holding on to the boat. Once again we passed on updated GPS positions to the authorities. At 8.05am, SM informed us that the boat had been found by the Moroccan Navy. The people were returned to Morocco. Our contact person confirmed also that they had been returned but at least they were safe.
Case 2: At 11.35am, we were informed by a contact person about a boat in the Strait of Gibraltar carrying 10 people. We also received their GPS position as well as a phone number. We spoke to the travellers at 11.40am, and they told us that they were tired and water was entering their boat. They had left from Tangier. At 11.48am, SM confirmed that they were searching for this boat. We later received the confirmation that they had been rescued to Spain.
Last update: 16:13 Jan 27, 2019
Credibility: |
![UP UP](https://watchthemed.net/media/img/up.png) |
![DOWN DOWN](https://watchthemed.net/media/img/down.png) |
0 |
|