Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 5th of July 2018

Case name: 2018_07_05-WM277
Situation: 6 travellers from Cap Spartel returned to Morocco by own forces
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:

On Thursday, 5th of July, at 9:42am CEST, we were alerted to a boat in distress in the Strait of Gibraltar, carrying 6 persons (among them 1 woman). The boat had left from Cap Spartel / Morocco at 3am local time. In the following hours, we tried to establish a connection to the boat and to find out their GPS position. At 1:31pm we received their position. At 1:49pm we called the Spanish rescue authority Salvamento Marítimo and forwarded the position. One hour later, at 2:40pm, we received an updated GPS position which we forwarded to Salvamento Marítimo at 2:56pm. The Spanish authority informed us that they had alerted the Moroccan Marine Royale as the boat was still in Moroccan territorial waters.
At 3:34pm we received an updated GPS position of the boat that was still at sea. At 3:37pm we called Salvamento Marítimo but they refused to note the updated position. We wrote an email including all respective authorities to document the alert. Afterwards, we tried to establish a proper connection to the boat. We received a new position at 4:19pm. At 4:36pm we called the Moroccan Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC) in Rabat. They took all information and said they would alert the Marine Royale. At 4:57pm we called Salvamento Marítimo again that referred us to Morocco for information on the case. At 5:55pm MRCC Rabat confirmed a rescue operation to us on the phone. We failed to reach the travellers to confirm this information. At 6:53pm, we called MRCC Rabat again, but they refused to pass any information. At 7:20pm we received a WA from the boat informing us that they had not been rescued but would still be at sea. We sent another email to raise the pressure on the authorities to intervene. At 8:24pm we received the information that the travellers had reached the Moroccan shore by themselves, which was then confirmed by two contact persons.