Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 29th of May 2018

Case name: 2018_05_29-WM239
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to emergency situation in the Western Med
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Tuesday, the 29th of May 2018, at 2.45am, our Alarm Phone shift team was alerted to a distress case in the Western Mediterranean by a contact person. We were informed about a group of 7 people who had left Cap Spartel/Morocco in order to reach Tarifa/Spain. At 2.50am the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM) told us that they had been alerted to the same distress case and were looking for the boat. We tried to reach the boat directly, but could not get through to them. Our contact person in Morocco was able to speak to them at 3am, and we received a new GPS position, showing them still in Moroccan waters. SM informed us at 3.40am that they had located the people but that they were in Moroccan waters – they had notified the Moroccan Navy to the case. At 4.35am we spoke to the Moroccan Navy and they confirmed that they had informed assets in the area about the boat in distress. At 12.20pm, the Navy informed us that they had rescued 2 boats during the night, but we could not verify that the boat in question was among them. In the afternoon, at around 5pm, our contact person confirmed that the boat had returned independently to Morocco and the passengers were safe.