Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 22nd of October 2020
Case name: 20201022-WM510
Situation: One boat in distress on the way to Spain; rescued and brought to Motril.
Place of incident: Western Mediterranean
Summary of the case:
On Tursday the 22nd of October at 16.30 CET the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a boat that had left from close to Al Hoceima at around 10.00 the same day, heading towards Motril. The boat was carrying 11 travellers, but neither Alarm Phone nor the relative was able to reach them. At 17.47, after many unsuccessful attempts to establish contact to the travellers and find out their exact position, we called the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM) and passed on the information we had. At 21.56 we called SM again, but they had no news about the case. At 01.07 the relative informed us that they had spoken to the travellers, who were in urgent distress. It had not been possible to obtain information about their exact location. It was not possible for our shift team to reach the travellers, and SM insisted that they could not carry out a search and rescue operation without knowing the position of the boat. At 06.41 another relative contacted us with the information that the boat was out of petrol, and according to this relative close to Motril. The relative had been in contact with the travellers one hour earlier, and sent us a picture of their approximate location. We immediately forwarded this information to SM. At 08.40 the relative informed us that the travellers had been rescued and brought to Spain by the Spanish police force Guardia Civil.