Moroccan Sailor Missing After Fishing Boat Sinks in Alboran Sea

Salvamento Marítimo rescued three sailors from the fishing boat "Nuevo Rafael" which sank on July 8, 14 miles southwest of the island of Alborán. They are safe and sound. But this is not the case for a fourth crew member, a 54-year-old Moroccan, who is missing.

His family, his wife and six children, are searching for him at sea. They have no information or details on the circumstances of the sinking.

His daughter Fatima, the family’s spokesperson, said her father "may have sunk with the boat", since, according to her, "he sometimes went down to the engine room; and if that’s the case, it’s almost impossible for him to get out alive."

That’s why she is asking the Spanish government to search for her father’s body using the ROV Comanche, a submarine robot used by Salvamento Marítimo. The "Helimer 220" helicopter has also been mobilized for the occasion.

For the sailor’s family, his disappearance seems suspicious, in the sense that he is a very experienced man who has lived his whole life at sea.