07/05: Shipwreck in the Atlantic, 13 survivors rescued, 28 travellers remain missing

06.05.2022 / 17:27 / Atlantic

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 7th May 2022

Case name: 2022_05_07-ATL044

Situation: Around 45 travellers in distress in the Atlantic Sea, following shipwreck 13 survivors were rescued by Salvamento Maritimo while at least 28 travellers remained missing.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Atlantic Sea

Summary of the case: On Saturday the 7th of May 2022, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of around 45 travellers, including one woman, in distress in the Atlantic Sea. The travellers had left from south of Boujdour in the early hours of the morning, heading towards the Canary Islands. The relative told us that the travellers did not carry a phone with them. However, we relayed the information we had to the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo.
The following day, we learned about two shipwrecks in the Atlantic Sea. This boat, we found out, had shipwrecked due to strong wind which had thrown most of the travellers in the water. 13 survivors who had managed to cling on to the side of the overturned rubber boat had been rescued by Salvamento Maritimo while at least 28 travellers remained missing. According to the travellers, most of their companions had drowned during the night before rescue had arrived.
Our thoughts and deepest solidarity are with the families and friends of those missing after this catastrophe as well as with the survivors who had to endure this traumatic experience.
Credibility: UP DOWN 0
Layers »
  • 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