Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 15th February 2023

Case name: 2022_02_15-ATL014

Situation: 47 travellers in distress in the Atlantic Ocean, picked up by merchant vessel and returned to Boujdour. One person dead, according to the travellers.

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Atlantic Ocean

Summary of the case: On Wednesday the 15th of February 2023, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted to a group of 47 travellers, including 11 women and one child, in distress in the Atlantic Ocean. The travellers had left from Dakhla three days earlier on a grey rubber boat. We managed to reach the travellers who told us that they were exhausted, that one person had already died and that another woman was very sick. They were still travelling with the body of the dead man on their boat. We managed to get their GPS position and immediately alerted the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo to the distress. They told us that they had already been searching for this boat the previous day without result, and that they would coordinate with a nearby merchant vessel to proceed to the position we provided. We stayed in contact with the travellers and relayed their updated GPS position as often as possible to the authorities. In the afternoon, the travellers told us that they could see the merchant vessels that had been ordered to look for them. After this, Salvamento Maritimo handed over the operation to the Moroccan search and rescue authorities. They told us that the merchant vessel Santa Isabel had taken the travellers onboard and that the travellers would be brought to Boujdour.

Tweets about the case:
https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1626192575903178753 https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1626192575903178753