13/09: 56 travellers rescued by Salvamento Maritimo in the Atlantic Ocean

14.09.2022 / 09:52 / Atlantic

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 13th of September 2022

Case name: 2022_09_13-ATL104

Situation: 56 people in distress at the Atlantic sea, rescued by Salvamento Maritimo

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Atlantic Sea

Summary of the Case: On Tuesday the 13th of September 2022, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted in the night (at 1:30 am CEST) by a relative to a group of 56 travellers, including 19 women and four children, in distress in the Atlantic Sea. The travellers had left the night before at around 03.00 CEST from TanTan towards Fuerteventura on a zodiac boat. The given information about the boat was relayed to the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo. At 2:02 CEST we could establish direct contact to the travellers, who told us their current GPS positionand asking for urgent help. We directly informed the Salvamento Maritimo via E-Mail about the newly received position (at 02:12 CEST). They answered ten minutes later informing us that a merchant vessel (Bitu Express) was heading towards the suspected position. They asked us to confirm the position format. We informed the relatives, who were asking whether the boat was rescued, that we did alert the authorities. Since we were not able to establish a connection to the people on the boat again, we wrote Salvamento Maritimo at 04:26 CEST if the GPS position from earlier could be confirmed by the merchant vessel and if there was a rescue operation taking place. At 5:14 CEST we could again establish a connection to the travellers and received an updated GPS position from them which we forwarded directly to Salvamento Maritimo. We stayed in contact with the people in distress, who constantly asked for help and informed us at 06.18 CEST that they saw a big ship, probably the merchant vessel. Thanks to the website “vesselfinder” we were able to inform them that a rescue vessel is on the way and would probably reach their location in approximately 30 minutes.

In the morning the following day, Salvamento Maritimo confirmed to us on the phone that the rescue operation for this boat was ongoing.

Last update: 12:56 Aug 07, 2023

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