At least five immigrants have died this Sunday afternoon when another inflatable boat sank about 90 kilometers east of Lanzarote, with 17 more people who were saved thanks to a raft launched from the air by the Maritime Rescue plane that located them.
In the same operation, 80 more people have been rescued who were also in trouble in a second inflatable boat near the previous one, a Salvamento spokesman told EFE.
On a Sunday in which the crews of the rescue ships based in Lanzarote and El Hierro have barely had a break, this new tragedy (the third of the day with fatalities), has been known thanks to a flight made by the Sasemar 103 plane.
Its crew detected two inflatable boats in distress about 50 nautical miles (93 kms) northeast of Lanzarote, one of which had one of the floats deflated, so they urgently launched a life raft from the air.
Moments later, the crew of the plane realized that there were several people in the water, some distance from the inflatable boat, so they threw a second life raft.
Immediately, the Helimer 204 helicopter, the Salvamar Al Nair (based in Arrecife) and several merchant ships that were en route through that area of the Atlantic were sent to help.
Upon arriving at the point of the emergency, the Salvamento helicopter rescued a survivor from the water and observed at least five corpses floating for which it could do nothing, since it had to move urgently towards the second inflatable boat, which was also in distress.
The Salvamar Al Nair finally rescued 17 people from one of the life rafts launched by the plane and the approximately 80 people who were on board the second inflatable boat.
At this time, it is sailing with all of them towards the port of Arrecife, where it is scheduled to arrive at approximately 5:50 p.m.
With these five deaths, the death toll on the Canary Route rises to a minimum of 55 of which there has been news in the last 24 hours.
Since Saturday night, Salvamento has rescued a cayuco with 10 survivors in which another 48 people died in their three weeks of crossing in the Atlantic, has recovered the body of a woman in the shipwreck of a first inflatable boat and has now been able to document the death of five more people in a second shipwreck.
In addition, an immigrant who arrived on Saturday in El Hierro in a cayuco with 180 occupants has died this Sunday in the island's hospital.
