Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 8th of July 2020

Case name: 2020_07_08-WM467
Situation: 52 travelers (3 babies, approx. 15 women) in distress between Morocco and Canary Islands, intercepted by the Moroccan Navy.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea/ Canary Islands

Summary of the Case:
On 8th July 2020 at 08:45h CEST, the Alarm Phone was alerted by a group of 52 travelers, among them three babies and approximately 15 women. They reported that their boat was leaking, they were sinking and asked us to inform Moroccan or Spain authorities. We asked them to send us their GPS location and they agreed to send it via WhatsApp, then the line broke. At 08:55h, not having received the GPS, we called them back and learned that they did not have internet connection and could not send the location. We asked them what they could see around them and when and from where they had started. They described to see only water around them and that they had started at midnight from Tan Tan, Morocco. The person we talked too, was panicking and in the background, we could hear people screaming in fear. The line broke again and we could re-establish it at 09:10h, but due to a bad connection, we could not find out more details about the situation. At 09:30h, our shift team decided to inform the Spanish Search and Rescue organization Salvamento Marítimo (SM) on Las Palmas without further information, because the distress situation seemed very dangerous. They informed us that there were several boats in distress and different rescue operations in progress that night. We passed them all the information we had, and they copied the telephone number of the travelers and said that the search airplane would start in 30 minutes and we agreed on keeping each other updated. We tried constantly to call the travelers to get information about their GPS location. At 10:14h, we called SM Madrid to learn more about the ongoing rescue operations. They stated that the Moroccan Navy coordinated the operations. At 10:30h, we called the Moroccan Navy, but could not find out new information. At 11:00h, we got through the travelers, but the connection was too bad to communicate. Ten minutes later, at 11:10h, the travelers confirmed that they had been picked up by the Moroccan Navy, and everyone was safe.