Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 20th of September 2018
Case name: 2018_09_20-WM335
Situation: 1 boat rescued, 1 boat no info
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On September 20th, the Alarm Phone was alerted to two cases. In the first case, two boats were rescued to Spain, while there is no final information about the second boat.

In the first case, the Alarm Phone was alerted to a case of two boats, one with 53 people (including 12 women and 5 children) and one with 53 people (including 6 women and 1 child). The shift team first received news at 3.43pm CEST. The boats were unreachable. The shift team called Salvamento Maritimo, who were aware of the situation. At 6.05pm CEST, Salvamento Maritimo reported the rescue of both boats.

In the second case, the Alarm Phone received news at 7.26pm CEST of a boat with 5 people that needed help. The boat included 1 pregnant woman. At 7.54pm, the boat requested that the shift team contact Salvamento Maritimo for a rescue operation. The shift team maintained contact with the boat and Salvamento Maritimo for several hours, but were unable to determine the boat’s location and then lose touch with the boat. At 8.04am the next day, the shift team regained contact with the boat, but could not determine the position, and quickly lost contact again. The shift team contacted Salvamento Maritimo to see if they had any answers. At 9.19am, the boat called again, and the shift team tried to maintain contact for several hours, with only intermittent success. It was impossible to confirm what happened to the boat; the only information was that at 8.00pm, Salvamento Maritimo explained that several boats had been rescued by both Salvamento and Marine Royale.