Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 07th of February 2023

Case name: 2023_02_07- ATL - 011

Situation: 46 people in distress in the Atlantic Ocean, probably rescued by a fishing vessel and returned to TanTan, Morocco, 3 people missing

Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded

Place of Incident: Atlantic Ocean

Summary of the Case:In the evening of Tuesday the 7th of February 2023 the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a relative to a group of 46 travelers, including 9 women and two children in distress in the Atlantic Ocean. The travelers had left from TanTan, Morocco in the morning at 5:00 CET the day before (6th of February). We were not able to establish a direct contact to the travelers, since the relative had no phone number of the travelers. We relayed all the information we had to the Spanish Search and Rescue organization Salvamento Maritimo via E-Mail. When calling Salvamento Maritimo they recommended us to get into contact with other Spanish authorities to learn more about ongoing or successful rescue operations. We contacted Guardia Civil and, following our information, confirmed that the 46 people are still at sea. During the night we did not receive any new information. Since by that time we had been alerted to several boats in distress in the Atlantic Ocean we published those information via Twitter the next morning (8th of February): https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1623246951364849664
The next days we constantly tried to learn more information from the relative, Salvamento Maritimo and to establish a direct contact to the travelers. Unfortunately we did not receive any new information. In the afternoon of the 8th of February we published another tweet.
Also two days later (10th of February) we were still waiting to learn anything about the whereabouts of this boat and tweeted again in the afternoon: https://twitter.com/alarm_phone/status/1624084236356530176
Only the 13th of February Spanish authority shared the information that a fishing vessel had found a boat with 43 people including 9 women and a child and brought them to TanTan, Morocco the 10th of February. At least one person had died. We called the Moroccan authorities Marine Royal, who confirmed those information. We forwarded the information to the relative and tried to get a confirmation from them. If the 46 travelers were found by that fishing vessel, the whereabouts of 3 people, one of them a child remains unclear.