Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 24th of September 2022

Case name: 2022_09_24-ATL115

Situation: 34 travelers in distress in the Atlantic Ocean, outcome not concluded

Status of WTM Investigation: unclear

Place of Incident: Atlantic Ocean

Summary of the Case:On Saturday the 24th of September 2022, in the evening the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 34 travelers, including two women, in distress in the Atlantic Ocean. The travelers had left in the early morning that same day (24th of September, 02:00 CEST) from Lemseid, Western Sahara in a zodiac boat heading towards the Canary Islands. We directly relayed the information to the Spanish search and rescue organization Salvamento Maritimo. The following hours and days we constantly tried but were not able to establish a direct contact to the travelers. After two days without any news from the relative nor Salvamento Maritimo we tweeted concerning this and three other boats in the Atlantic Ocean: “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 islands & face adverse weather conditions. Authorities are alerted and we expect swift rescue operations.” (21:54 CEST, 25th of September https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1574125195568287750:).

During the next day we tried to find out more about the case, being in close contact with Salvamento Maritimo, the Moroccan Navy and the relative. The relative had heared rumors about a merchant vessel which drove circles near the coast of Lemseid. The authorities could not confirm that this vessel was involved in a rescue operation of 34 travelers. The 26th of September at 14:06 CEST we tweeted again: "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?" (https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1574369778566942720).

Also in the next two days we did not learn any new information about this case, so we decided to mention the boat indirectly in another tweet, informing about other boats who we were in contact with as well: "We can confirm that the second boat in distress in the Atlantic was intercepted to #Morocco. The boat carried 42 people and left from #TanTan. We are relieved they were finally found after a week at sea. For 2 boats with ~100 people, we have no news. We hope they will be found."

We continued to try to reach the travelers and match the information about rescue operations and arrivals in Morocco and the Canary Islands to find out about the remain of this boat. After approximately one week (30th of September) we decided to close that case without knowing what happened to the 34 travelers. We informed the relative and published another tweet concerning that boat and another one: “We fear the worst for two boats on the #Canary route in the #Atlantic. They are missing for about 1 week in terrible weather conditions. The Spanish authorities also do not have any information about the ~100 people.”