31/07: 19 travelers left from Algeria, rescue to Palma de Mallorca.

01.08.2021 / 17:56 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 31st July 2021

Case name: 2021_07_31-WM654

Situation: 19 travelers (1 woman, 1 baby) leave from Bejaïa, Algeria. Rescue to Palma de Mallorca.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the case

On the 31st of July 2021 around noon, the Alarm Phone received a call from a relative of someone on a boat that had left from Bejaïa, Algeria, towards Spain. Reportedly, there were 19 travelers on board, among them at least one woman and one baby, and they had left on the 30th July at 02h00 local time in a fiberglass boat. Our shift team tried to get through to them to receive their GPS location, but without success. At 12h47 CEST, we informed the Maritime Rescue Coordination centres (MRCCs) in Madrid, Palma de Mallorca and Algiers via e-mail. The Spanish MRCC informed us that there were several rescues that morning. Our shift teams searched for information about he missing boat in the media and called the different authorities for the next one and a half days, and we received the confirmation of the rescue on the 2nd of July at 00h21 CEST from the Guardia Civil of Palma de Mallorca.

Credibility:

Border police patrols
While the exact location of patrols is of course constantly changing, this line indicates the approximate boundary routinely patrolled by border guards’ naval assets. In the open sea, it usually correspond to the outer extent of the contiguous zone, the area in which “State may exercise the control necessary to prevent infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws” (UNCLOS, art. 33). Data source: interviews with border police officials.
Coastal radars
Approximate radar beam range covered by coastal radars operating in the frame of national marine traffic monitoring systems. The actual beam depends from several different parameters (including the type of object to be detected). Data source: Finmeccanica.
Exclusive Economic Zone
Maritime area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea in which the coastal state exercises sovereign rights for the purposes of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, the seabed and its subsoil and the superjacent waters. Its breadth is 200 nautical miles from the straight baselines from which the territorial sea is measured (UNCLOS, Arts. 55, 56 and 57). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans
Frontex operations
Frontex has, in the past few years, carried out several sea operations at the maritime borders of the EU. The blue shapes indicate the approximate extend of these operations. Data source: Migreurop Altas.
Mobile phone coverage
Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network coverage. Data source: Collins Mobile Coverage.
Oil and gas platforms
Oil and gas platforms in the Mediterranean. Data source:
Search and Rescue Zone
An area of defined dimensions within which a given state is has the responsibility to co-ordinate Search and Rescue operations, i.e. the search for, and provision of aid to, persons, ships or other craft which are, or are feared to be, in distress or imminent danger. Data source: IMO availability of search and rescue (SAR) services - SAR.8/Circ.3, 17 June 2011.
Territorial Waters
A belt of sea (usually extending up to 12 nautical miles) upon which the sovereignty of a coastal State extends (UNCLOS, Art. 2). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans