Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 19th of March 2019

Case name: 2019_03_19-WM380
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to emergency situations in the Western Med
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Tuesday, the 19th of March 2019, the Alarm Phone was alerted at around noon to a boat that had left from Tangier/Morocco during the night, with 8 people on board. We received a phone number of the people on board and reached them at noon. The man we spoke to reported that they had informed the Moroccan Navy already but nobody had come to their rescue. We asked them to send us their current location. We spoke to them again at 12.17h CET and they reported that they could see a vessel nearby. They again confirmed that they had called the Moroccan authorities repeatedly.

We called the Moroccan authorities at 12.30h and they stated that they knew about the boat and had started an investigation. We in turn informed the people on board about what the authorities had told us. We also informed MRCC Madrid, at 12.36h, who stated that the boat was in an area of Moroccan responsibility. When we received the GPS position of the boat, we informed also MRCC Tarifa, at 12.52h. A few minutes later, the calls for help from the boat became more urgent. We passed their position on to the Moroccan authorities at 12.57h. They could not give us an Estimated Time of Arrival but stated that they were searching for it. We spoke to the travellers at 12.58h and asked them to remain calm. They described their boat as a yellow and blue rubber boat without an engine. This information we again passed on to the Moroccan authorities.

When we spoke to the travellers at 13.26h, they seemed calmer. They said they could see a container vessel nearby called Cape Race. They also reported of a military vessel nearby which, however, seemed to leave the area. We received an updated GPS position and passed it on to the Moroccan authorities, and we did so again at 14h.

At 14.15h, the travellers grew increasingly frustrated that no help was coming despite everyone being well informed. They were exhausted and asked for immediate rescue. At 14.40h we once more spoke to the Moroccan authorities and demanded rapid action. Again the authorities confirmed that they were taking action but could not make promises. We spoke to MRCC Tarifa at 14.53h to make the case that the Moroccan authorities were not adequately responding to the distress situation. MRCC Tarifa confirmed that they would ask the Moroccan Navy to engage. At 15h, we spoke again to the passengers who said that no rescue was in sight. We then made the situation public via Twitter and asked authorities for immediate engagement.

After 15.50h we lost contact to the boat for several hours. We again informed MRCC Rabat and only received excuses. Only at 18.35h did we again hear from the boat. We received a voice message saying that they could see a large vessel moving toward them. At 18.36h, the Spanish Salvamento Maritimo called us and offered to send a helicopter to the distressed. A few minutes later, however, the people on the boat confirmed that they had just been found by the Moroccan Navy.