07/02 Alarm Phone alerted to boat in distress in the Western Med, rescued to Spain

08.02.2016 / 17:53 / Western Mediterranean Sea

Watch The Med Alarm Phone Investigations – 7th of February 2016

Case name: 2016_02_07-WM80
Situation: Alarm Phone alerted to boat in distress in the Western Mediterranean Sea, rescued to Spain
Status of WTM Investigation: Concluded
Place of Incident: Western Mediterranean Sea

Summary of the Cases: On Sunday the 7th of February 2016, around noon, our Alarm Phone shift team was contacted by someone who told us that his friend was on a vessel that had left from Tangier/Morocco seeking to reach Spain. He didn’t know at what time they had departed but assumed that they had left during the night. He also informed us that the engine of the vessel had broken down. We contacted the boat at 12.15pm and despite difficulties to communicate, we gathered that they had left from Tangier, their engine had stopped working and 2 women on board were sick. When we spoke to them at 12.23pm and it seemed as if water had started to enter their vessel, we quickly reached out to the Spanish search and rescue organisation Salvamento Maritimo (SM). The Spanish authorities already knew about this case and had launched a rescue operation. Afterwards we were unable to reconnect to the group of travellers. At 1.33pm SM confirmed that they had rescued the group of 8 men, 3 women and one baby near the Moroccan coast and were in the process of bringing them to Tarifa/Spain. All of them were fine health-wise. We then informed our contact person about the good news.
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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