Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 2nd of November 2017

Case name: 2017_11_02-WM174
Situation: 53 travellers in distress brought back to Morocco
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case:

On Thursday, 2nd of November, at 9:20pm, we received a call from a boat in distress that had embarked in Larache in Western Morocco, carrying about 50 people, including pregnant women.
They had been on the water for more than 10 hours and their engine had stopped.
At 9:35pm we called the Spanish rescue authority Salvamento Maritimo and informed them about the boat in distress.We couldn't establish a connection to the boat any more.
At 10:20pm we called Salvamento Maritimo again who told us that they had informed the Moroccan Marine Royale that would be searching for the boat.
We sent an email to the respective authorities to inform about the alert.
At 10:40pm we reach the travellers. Their engine was working again and they headed east. At 10:54pm we called Salvamento Maritimo that stated they would also try to reach the boat.
At 11:25pm we received a GPS position of the boat. At 11:31pm we passed it to Salvamento Maritimo. They said that MRCC Rabat was coordinating the rescue and that Salvamento would be in contact with the Moroccan Marine Royale about the case.
At 11:51pm we received an updated position. We called Salvamento Maritimo again and passed it on. They informed us that MRCC Rabat had launched a search and rescue operation.
At 11:58pm we tried to reach MRCC Rabat, but couldn't reach them. At 0:07am they called back, asking for an email with all information and the latest GPS position which we sent at 0:15am. At 1:03am we received a new GPS position from the boat. At 1:04am we passed it to MRCC Madrid that stated it will pass it to the Moroccan authority, but also asked for an email with the information to both MRCC Rabat and Spain. At 1:17am we sent an email to the respective authorities with the updated information.
At 1:30am we received a call from MRCC Rabat that told us they couldn't find the boat at the old position and would send a rescue asset to the new position now.
We couldn't establish connection to the boat anymore. We neither could reach MRCC Rabat. At 2:20am we called MRCC Spain that was in communication with MRCC Rabat and informed us that Rabat had now sent two assets to search for the boat. We requested support for the operation from Spain, as the people hadn't been found yet. At 2:52am we sent another email to emphasize the urgency.
At 2:57am we received a call from MRCC Rabat that told us they would still be searching. At 4:11am they called again and confirmed the rescue of 53 people. At 4:36am we reached one of the travellers that confirmed the rescue.