01/10: 28 people in distress in the Alboran Sea, rescued and brought to Spain

03.10.2018 / 12:46 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 1st of October 2018
Case name: 2018_10_01-WM340
Situation: 28 people in distress, rescued by Salvamento Maritimo and brought to Spain.
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Case: On Monday the 1st of October at 3.56pm CEST, the Alarm Phone shift team was alerted by a contact person to a boat carrying 28 people, including seven women and a child. The travellers had left from around Nador, and the contact person had lost contact to the boat. We were also not able to establish direct contact to the travellers, but at 5.35pm we called the Spanish search and rescue organization Salvamento Maritimo (SM) and alerted them to the situation. A little more than an hour later we called back SM, and they this time confirmed that they were searching for the boat. Throughout the evening it was not possible for us to obtain information about new developments concerning the search and rescue operation.
The following morning we were again in close communication with SM, who were busy with many boats in distress. At 9.05am we learned that SM had recommenced the search and rescue operation in the morning, and two hours later we spoke to them again, where they confirmed that the operation was still ongoing.
Only in the evening at 9.05pm did we receive the information from the contact person that the travellers had been rescued and brought to Spain. This was soon after confirmed in an email from SM.
Last update: 12:49 Oct 13, 2018
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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