Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 13th April 2021
Case name: 2021_04_13-WM588
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to 25 travellers in distress in the Atlantic. Finally, they were rescued by Salvamento Maritimo and brought to Gran Canaria.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean

Summary On Tuesday the 13th of April in the early hours of the morning, our Alarm Phone shift team was contacted by a relative alerting us to a boat in distress. The boat was carrying 25 travellers; 17 men, seven women and a child. The travellers had left from between Dakhla and Boujdour, Western Sahara, on the 12th of April at 01.00 CEST on a blue wooden boat. At 09.17 CEST we contacted the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo and alerted them to the distress of the travellers both via email and phone. We were not able to reach the phone numbers of the travellers directly, but stayed in contact with their relatives on land. At 13.13 CEST we still had no news and therefore called Salvamento Maritimo again. They told us they would commence a search operation with aircrafts later in the afternoon. At 16.35 CEST Salvamento Maritimo told us that they were about to head off with their aircraft, and that the mission would continue for two to three hours. At 19.29 CEST we called Salvamento Maritimo again to ask for the result of their mission. They told us that they rescued a boat corresponding to the information we had given them, and that the travellers were being brought to Gran Canaria.