Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 24th of September 2020
Case name: 2020_09_24-WM487
Situation: 59 travelers (10 women, 2 children) disappeared between Boujdour and Canary Islands, search missions for four days without results.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea/Canary Islands

Summary of the Case:
On 24th of September 2020 at 18:45h CEST, the Alarm Phone was informed about a group of 59 travelers, among them ten women and two children. They had started at 03:00h CEST from Boujdour, Western Sahara/Morocco in a black zodiac. The last contact to the relative who informed us had been one hour after the departure. Our shift team could not get through to the travelers and at 19:03h, we called the Spanish Search and Rescue organization Salvamento Marítimo (SM) of Las Palmas and forwarded the information, also via e-mail. At 21:55h, we asked them for an update via phone call and learned that SM Las Palmas had not found any boat and would stop the operation during the night. During the night, we could still not get through to the travelers. On the 25th at 10:33h, SM Las Palmas told us that their Search and Rescue airplane was operating. At 13:47h, they were still searching for the boat without new information. At 16:36h, they reported that their plane had not spotted a boat that corresponded to our description. They would send out a rescue vessel the next morning. At 19:55h, we asked the relative for news, but they had not been able to get in touch with their loved ones. At 21:29h, we called the Guardia Civil of Canary Islands. They were aware of the case but did not have further results and did not have any information from Moroccan side. The next morning, 26th, at 9:30h, we talked to the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Madrid. They did not have news in this case but continued the search operations. At 10:32h, we talked to the Moroccan Navy. They were aware of the case and coordinated the operation in collaboration with Spain but had not found any boat. We could still not reach the travelers. At 12:10h, we called SM Las Palmas and they passed us the number of the Guardia Civil for further investigation about arrivals on the Islands. We called them at 12:11h, but they did not have any information about the 59 travelers. They informed us about the current mission of their search aircraft between Boujdour and the Canary Islands. At 14:31h, our shift team talked to the Guardia Civil again and they confirmed to continue their airborne search operation during the afternoon. At 18:24h, another relative of someone on the boat called the Alarm Phone and asked if we had information about their whereabouts. At 20:04h, we talked to SM Las Palmas. They had stopped their search operations for the day and not found the boat. We informed the relatives about this. The next morning, the 27th, the travelers were still not reachable. At 10:30h, the Guardia Civil informed us that they did not have any news but continued the missions. During the whole day, they did not find the 59 travelers. The next day, 28th, the travelers were still not reachable, and the authorities did not find them.

Until now we did not learn about the whereabouts of these people and need to fear the worst.