2 Vessels in distress in the Western Med, rescued to Spain‬

01.09.2015 / 15:32 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations, 31st of August 2015

Case name: 2015_08_31-WM48
Situation: 2 vessels rescued by Salvamento Maritimo, Spain
Status of WTM Investigations: Concluded
Place of Incidents: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Monday, the 31st of August 2015, the Alarm Phone was alerted to two distress situations in the Western Mediterranean. The first alert came in at 9:37am: A contact person gave us the telephone number of travellers on a small plastic vessel. We reached them and they told us that they were tired and exhausted. They did not know about their exact position, but said that they had left from Malabata at 2 AM and thought they were close to Tarifa. They asked us to call Salvamento Maritimo. In a second call, they clarified that they were 8 persons and that they drifted without an engine. Moreover, the boat started to loose air and due to the foggy weather they could not see far. They agreed that we forward their number to the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM). We called SM Tarifa and passed on all the information that we had received. Half an hour later we called the travellers again. They told us that they were not moving anymore. We advised them to keep calm and informed them that a rescue operation could take a couple of hours. As promised, we called to check on them every fifteen minutes. As time passed, they got more desperate, thirsty, and hungry and they were freezing. Twice they heard a noise of a boat but did not see anything due to the fog.

At 12.11pm we called them again. Somebody picked up, but nobody spoke. In the background we heard a lot of shouting, apparently they tried to draw someone's attention on them. Eventually the call was interrupted without us being able to obtain further information. Fifteen minutes later we called again, the phone was switched off. Also the person who had given us their contact could not be reached anymore. At half past twelve we called SM to ask about the ongoing rescue operation. The response given was unclear. Apparently both SM and the Moroccan Navy were operating in the area. At 1pm, we managed to reach the travellers again. We hardly understood them, due to background noises, but one of them was on the phone and thanked us several times. We sent a message and asked for a confirmation of the rescue by SM. At 1.32pm a contact person in Morocco confirmed the rescue by SM and told us that all travellers were in good health.

At quarter to twelve, we received a call about a second case in the same area. A contact person informed us about a second zodiac that had also left from Malabata at 3am and was now lost in the fog. Seven persons were on board, among them minors. Apparently they were also without an engine. SM had not yet been informed. We first tried to get in touch with the travellers before calling SM. They told us that a rescue vessel was already searching in the area for the first boat we had alerted them to. They promised to forward the information concerning the second vessel to the rescue vessel. At 12:05pm we called again the travellers. The number was busy. We then received another number of one of the persons on the vessel. We passed on this second number to SM and asked about the ongoing rescue operation. They told us that the second vessel had not yet been found. We tried to call the people on the vessel again. After a failed attempt, we reached them: They told us that they had no idea where they are, that they only saw water and that the water sent them "from right to left and forwards and backwards". At 1.24pm in another call to the zodiac travellers, we got the good news that SM had rescued them.
Last update: 03:53 Sep 10, 2015
Credibility: UP DOWN 0
Layers »
  • Border police patrols
     
    While the exact location of patrols is of course constantly changing, this line indicates the approximate boundary routinely patrolled by border guards’ naval assets. In the open sea, it usually correspond to the outer extent of the contiguous zone, the area in which “State may exercise the control necessary to prevent infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws” (UNCLOS, art. 33). Data source: interviews with border police officials.
  • Coastal radars
     
    Approximate radar beam range covered by coastal radars operating in the frame of national marine traffic monitoring systems. The actual beam depends from several different parameters (including the type of object to be detected). Data source: Finmeccanica.
  • Exclusive Economic Zone
     
    Maritime area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea in which the coastal state exercises sovereign rights for the purposes of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, the seabed and its subsoil and the superjacent waters. Its breadth is 200 nautical miles from the straight baselines from which the territorial sea is measured (UNCLOS, Arts. 55, 56 and 57). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans
  • Frontex operations
     
    Frontex has, in the past few years, carried out several sea operations at the maritime borders of the EU. The blue shapes indicate the approximate extend of these operations. Data source: Migreurop Altas.
  • Mobile phone coverage
     
    Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network coverage. Data source: Collins Mobile Coverage.
  • Oil and gas platforms
     
    Oil and gas platforms in the Mediterranean. Data source:
  • Search and Rescue Zone
     
    An area of defined dimensions within which a given state is has the responsibility to co-ordinate Search and Rescue operations, i.e. the search for, and provision of aid to, persons, ships or other craft which are, or are feared to be, in distress or imminent danger. Data source: IMO availability of search and rescue (SAR) services - SAR.8/Circ.3, 17 June 2011.
  • Territorial Waters
     
    A belt of sea (usually extending up to 12 nautical miles) upon which the sovereignty of a coastal State extends (UNCLOS, Art. 2). Data source: Juan Luis Suárez de Vivero, Atlas of the European Seas and Oceans

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