Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 22nd of September 2022

Case name: 2022_09_22-ATL111

Situation: 42 people in distress at the Atlantic Ocean, intercepted by the Moroccan navy and brought back to TanTan

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Atlantic Ocean

Summary of the Case:
On Thursday the 22nd of September 2022, around midday the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 42 travelers, including 2 women, in distress in the Atlantic Ocean. The travelers had left from TanTan, Morocco two days earlier at 03:00 CEST in the morning. We were not able to establish a direct contact to the people on boat and the relative was not able to reach them anymore. We received information about an arrival at Lanzarote from 43 people, which we suggested could fit with the 42 travelers of this case. Since during this day and the next morning we were not able to establish a direct contact to the travelers and the relative called several times still being very concerned and not being able to reach the travelers himself, we were not able to match the autonomous arrival to this case. We relayed the information we had to the Spanish search and rescue organization Salvamento Maritimo via E-Mail the afternoon of the 23rd September. We continued to stay in contact with the relative and also tried constantly to reach the travelers. AT 21:13 CEST we called Salvamento Maritimo to ask about any information regarding those 42 travelers but the only rescued boat from TanTan differs concerning the number of people a lot. Also the Moroccan navy did not launch a rescue operation recently.

During the night and next day (24th of September) we kept trying to establish a contact to the travelers and asked the relative about any news. In the evening of the 24th of September we sent an E-Mail to the Spanish institution Guardia Civil and called later to ask, if they can match any recent or ongoing rescue operation with our information. The officer on duty recommended to ask again the following morning. The 25th of September we called the Spanish authorities as well as the Moroccan authorities to ask about information concerning the 42 travelers. In the later afternoon (26th of September) the relative relayed the information to us that the 42 travelers had been rescued by the Morrocan navy. When we called them to confirm that information, they told us about a boat with 43 people and 7 women, which had been rescued and brought back to Morocco. Since a tropical storm was coming up and another three boats in the Atlantic Ocean we had information about, we decided to publish the following tweet (at 21:54 CEST, 25.09.) https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1574125195568287750: (As #TropicalStorm #Hermine hits the #CanaryIslands 4 boats to which we were alerted are in distress in the #Atlantic. ~200 people, incl. children, are on their way to the..)

The next night and following day we were still not able to confirm what happened to the 42 travelers, since the information we had were not exactly matching with known rescue operation. Also the information came from relatives who could not tell us how precise they were. We decided to tweet again (at 14:06 CEST, 26.09.): https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1574369778566942720

We still don't know the whereabouts of the 4 boats to which we were alerted on the #CanaryRoute. There is no contact to any of them. Competent authorities are only sharing vague information about their activities & are not confirming any rescue. Where are these people?

We stayed in contact with Salvamento Maritimo and the Moroccan navy but did not receive any new information. Only at 00:25 CEST of the 27th of the September we learned from the relative who was able to finally establish direct contact to the travelers that this boat had actually been rescued by the Moroccan navy.