On Saturday morning the Civil Guard were made aware of a Spanish Naval torpedo floating near the island of Tabarca Island. The armament was found by a group of fishermen from Alicante who spotted the object while fishing about four miles from the coast.
The discovery, which caused concern and curiosity in equal measure, was immediately reported to the local authorities.
One of the fishermen who spotted the projectile, Pedro Pertegal said, “We saw it passing behind us, floating along with the current, and we initially thought that it might be a buoy. As it passed very close to us, we went to look out of curiosity and my companion, who was in the army for six or seven years, confirmed to us that it was a torpedo.”
The fishermen acted quickly and contacted Maritime Rescue and the Civil Guard. However, they say that it took the officers around an hour and a half to arrive at the scene and to take charge of the incident. Given the delay and the imminent danger that the torpedo could collide with a boat, mainly due to its proximity to the coast of Tabarca, as well as the movement of jet skis in the area, the fishermen decided to hook it up and tow it to the shore to avoid possible tragedies.
Pedro Pertegal later recounted the experience through his TikTok account, commenting that initially the authorities did not believe what was happening until we sent them a photo of the projectile.
“We removed it because we sailed at dawn and we know how dangerous it could be to a boat travelling at high speed,” said Pertegal, who photographed and recorded the towing process that he passed to the Civil Guard.
The Guardia Civil confirmed that they had not received any prior notification of the loss of a torpedo.
The device was eventually confirmed a Mark 46 torpedo of the United States Navy, an anti-submarine model used by frigates of the Santa María and Álvaro Bazán classes, as well as by Spanish Navy SH60 Seahawk helicopters.
A torpedo in open waters represents a serious risk to navigation in the area and as such, the Civil Guard is carrying out an investigation to determine how the torpedo came to be floating in the area.
At the moment, all hypotheses are open, including one possibility that it could be a practice torpedo, since, if loaded, it would have yellow stripes, and those found on the device were orange, indicating that it was unarmed.
