Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 15th of January 2019
Case name: 2019_01_15-WM367
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to three groups of travellers, in the end they were all rescued by SM and brought to Spain
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Tuesday the 15th of January, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted to three boats in the Western Med. One boat had left from Tangier, one from Nador, and one came all the way from Algeria. In the end we were able to obtain confirmation that all three boats had been rescued by the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM) and were brought to Spain.
At 7.15am CET our shift team received a call from a contact person, alerting us to a boat with 12 men, forwarding us their phone number and position. The travellers were in urgent distress in the Strait of Gibraltar, as their inflatable boat was losing air. At 7.48 we called SM and passed on all the information we had. In the meantime, we were not able to establish a direct connection to the travellers. At 8.33 we alerted the public to the situation in a tweet. An hour later we managed to reach the travellers, who confirmed to us that they had been rescued.
At 1.10pm CET we received information via a contact person about a group of travellers who had left from Nador at 5am. They were 38 people, including three children and seven women, and their engine had stopped working. We were not able to reach the travellers, but at 1.35pm we called SM and forwarded the information we had. Half an hour later we received a position via the contact person, which we immediately forwarded to SM, who told us that they thought they had managed to locate the boat and were heading that direction. At 4.18pm we got a confirmation from the contact person that the travellers had been rescued by SM and were being brought to Spain.

At 3.03pm CET a contact person called us and told us about a boat with 12-14 men, who had left from Algeria at 1am and were now close to Spain. The travellers could see the Spanish coast but could no longer move as they had run out of fuel. Due to high waves they were in urgent distress. At 4.15pm we called SM and passed on the information we had. Online, we could see that they were searching the area with rescue vessels. Despite continuously trying to reach the travellers, we did not manage to establish a direct connection. At 5.43pm we received a confirmation from the contact person that the travellers had been rescued by SM.