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

Case name: 2018_06_29-WM273
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 Friday the 29th of June 2018, our Alarm phone shift team was alerted to 4 boats in distress in the Western Mediterranean Sea.

Case 1: At 3.55am CEST, we received a call from a contact person who informed us about a boat with 12 people on board that had entered a situation of distress off Morocco. At 4.10am we reached the travellers for the first time. It was hard to understand them, but in repeated conversation we received further information, though it remained difficult to estimate where they had left from and when. At 5.18am we learned that they had probably left from Tangier/Morocco and at 5.28am they said they were able to see a boat nearby. When we spoke to the travellers at 5.32am, they said that they had left the night before at 11pm CEST. There were 3 children and 2 women on board. We informed the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM) at 5.36am. The travellers wanted us to alert also the Moroccan authorities as well since they were in urgent distress, and so we informed them at 6.02am. They confirmed that they were already searching for the boat in question. At 6.57am the boat called us and the people on board were shouting for help. At 7.35am we spoke to them again and they had still not been discovered. They were exhausted and anxious. After this last conversation, we lost contact to the boat. At 8.14am the Moroccan authorities confirmed that they were working on a rescue operation together with SM. Later on, we re-established contact to one of the travellers who confirmed that they had been returned to Morocco.

Case 2: At 4.32am CEST, we were informed by a contact person about a boat carrying 8 people from Tangier. At 4.56am we reached them but shortly after the call was interrupted and could not be re-established. At 5.36am we informed SM who had already been informed about a boat with 8 people – it was however not possible to verify whether this was the same boat. At 11.57am one of the travellers stated that they had been intercepted and were on a vessel of the Moroccan Navy.

Case 3: At 9.24am CEST, a contact person in Morocco contacted us about a boat carrying 10 people from Tangier/Morocco. Following his account, they had been at sea for about 10 hours already and were exhausted. We received their GPS position and passed the information on to SM at 10.06am. At 12.27pm our initial contact person confirmed that they had been rescued by SM and were brought to Spain.

Case 4: At 9.30am, a contact person in Morocco contacted us about a boat carrying 12 people from Tangier/Morocco. At 11.12am we passed on their GPS position to SM. At 11.35am, we received a voice message from the boat, confirming that 2 vessels were approaching them. At 1.36pm, our contact person confirmed that they had been rescued to Spain.