17 found dead on Cayuco drifting southwest of El Hierro

A cayuco with 17 dead and 3 survivors on board was found yesterday by a search and rescue plane, drifting 265 miles southwest of the island of El Hierro, according to sources from Maritime Rescue. The Maritime Rescue Control Centre in Tenerife mobilized the Talía rescue boat from Gran Canaria, and an Air Force helicopter to the area to rescue the survivors.

After locating the boat, the helicopter airlifted the only 3 survivors who were travelling in it and confirmed that there are 17 lifeless bodies still on board. Maritime Rescue reported that the 3 they recued are quite dehydrated, and being supplied with liquids on board the aircraft.

The survivors of the ordeal, a woman and two men have landed at Tenerife North airport and one of them, in a critical condition, has been rushed to the University Hospital with severe dehydration. The other two are in moderate condition and have been transferred to the Hospital de la Candelaria.

The boat with the lifeless bodies onboard was guarded by a merchant ship called the Lady Doris, which was the closest vessel to the cayuco when the alert was sounded. They stayed by it until Maritime Rescue got there just after midnight last night, who confirmed that there are no survivors left on board, and estimated that they will reach a Canaries port at approximately 11:30 this morning.

At the time of going to press, it had not been established which port they will go to with the deceased, as La Restinga in El Hierro is the closest (about 490 kilometres), or back to their base in Arguineguín (600 kilometres).

MOST VICTIMS ONBOARD A CAYUCO SINCE AUGUST 2020:
The number of 17 people found dead, makes this cayuco the greatest tragedy on record in the Canary Islands since August last year, when the Guardia Civil located another similar boat with fifteen corpses on board, without any survivors, 200 kilometres south of Gran Canaria.

That is, if the bodies that have been recovered are counted, because if the number is based on the testimony of the survivors, the greatest tragedy in recent months is the one located on April 11th about 220 kilometres south of El Hierro with four corpses on board.

Some of its 19 survivors told the Police that, when they left Nouakchott 18 days earlier, there were between 45 and 49 people onboard, so that the number of victims in this case ranges between 26 and 30, most of which were thrown in to the sea.

A spokesperson for Caminando Fronteras, a Spanish NGO that reports the departure of boats to the authorities to facilitate their rescue, has said that at this time there is no news of five cayucos that left Mauritania for the Canary Islands over the last month, with a total of 283 people on board (63, 58, 56, 59 and 47).