Maritime Rescue personnel are searching for the Spanish businessman Juan José Mutilba Obregón, 66 years old, missing since last Tuesday after falling into the sea from his boat during a voyage between Sicily and Greece. His wife, Carmen (67), who was traveling with him, remained alone and adrift on board the boat for three days, without coverage to call for help, until she was finally able to contact land.
“We are now at the marina of Pilos, but we know very little. They tell us the search is still active, although we have no further information,” explains to EL MUNDO Sergio Mutilba, son of the missing man, who has traveled to the town while efforts continue to locate his father.
Mutilba had retired early and devoted much of his time to sailing with his wife. “They had been taking a few months off traveling around the world. They were always in Italy, France, Greece…”, his son recounts. Last Monday, they both set sail from Syracuse, Sicily, bound for Pilos on the Greek coast. The voyage proceeded normally until the following morning.
According to the family’s reconstruction, Juan José had caught a tuna and was cleaning it when he slipped, possibly on the animal’s blood, and fell overboard. By then, the couple was already far from the coast. “My mother heard him shout: ‘Menchu, Menchu, turn off the engine,’ but she did not know how to react,” Sergio says.
Carmen had obtained her recreational boat captain’s license years earlier, but she was not prepared to steer the boat alone under those circumstances. “She froze, didn’t know how to react and the boat started drifting further and further away,” her son explains. Juan José was left behind in the sea while the boat kept moving forward without his wife managing to return to him.
Then began three days of uncertainty on board. Carmen tried to contact emergency services, but she had no coverage, about 150 miles from the coast, according to the family. She stayed on the boat, where she had food, going in and out of the cabin to check if she regained signal and could call for help.
Meanwhile, a friend of Juan José, an expert in navigation who regularly followed his voyages, began to suspect something was wrong when he noticed the boat had deviated from the planned route. He tried to contact him, but his messages also did not get through due to lack of connection.
It was not until Friday, three days after the fall, that Carmen finally regained coverage and managed to speak with that friend. From there, the alarm was raised. Spanish Maritime Rescue passed the alert to Italian and Greek services, and several boats went to the position where the boat was located. Finally, they were able to take control of the boat and steer it to Pilos.
The priority now is to find Juan José. Sergio explains that the alert has gone through the rescue services of Spain, Italy, and Greece and that the family is aware the operation remains active, although he regrets the little information they receive about its progress.
“What we ask is that they do not stop and keep searching,” demands his son, who considers it necessary for the Spanish authorities to also get involved in the operation. “We should talk to the Ministry of the Interior and see if more resources can be mobilized,” he adds, aiming for the search to continue and for the family to know more precisely what resources are being used.
Juan José Mutilba, a computer scientist by profession, was for years at the head of D’ors Informática and later also developed an activity dedicated to water distribution to companies through Mutobre, S.L., a business his son took over last year along with a partner. Since his early retirement, sailing had become one of his main occupations, and he regularly traveled the Mediterranean with his wife. Now, with Carmen safe, the family remains in Pilos awaiting any news about his whereabouts.
