Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 28th October 2021

Case name: 2021_10_28-WM765

Situation: 52 travellers in distress in the Atlantic Sea, rescued and brought to the Canary Islands.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Atlantic Sea

Summary On Thursday the 28th of October 2021, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 52 travellers, including 15 women and two children in distress in the Atlantic Sea. The travellers had left from Laayoune the same morning at around 02.00 CEST. Weather was bad in the region and the waves were high. We were not able to establish direct contact to the travellers, but forwarded the information we had to the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo, who told us that a search and rescue operation was ongoing in the area. We were monitoring the credit of the travellers’ satellite phone online and could see that they were not communicating with anyone else. At 08.17 CEST the following morning we finally reached the travellers. They told us that there were holes in their boat and water was entering. We also managed to get their GPS position which we immediately relayed to Salvamento Maritimo who told us that they had a vessel 5 nm from the travellers which would proceed to conduct the rescue operation. After losing contact to the boat, we received a confirmation from the relatives that the travellers had been rescued an brought to the Canary Islands.