Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 19th of January 2019
Case name: 2019_01_19-WM368
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 11 people in distress in the Western Med. The travellers were rescued by SM and brought to Algeciras.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Saturday the 19th of January at 9.25am, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a contact person to a boat with 11 travellers, including two women, in the Western Med. The contact person forwarded us the phone number and position of the travellers and informed us that they had left from Tangier at 3.30am. We managed to reach the travellers, but due to bad connection, communication was very difficult. At 9.35am we called the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM) and passed on the information we had. Half an hour later we spoke to SM again, and they confirmed that they were looking for the travellers with boats and a helicopter, which had just spotted a rubber boat in distress. In another call to the travellers they confirmed to us that they saw the helicopter, and at 10.43am the travellers confirmed that they had been rescued and were being taken to Algeciras.