Juan José Mutilba, a 66-year-old businessman from Burgos, went overboard in the Mediterranean while sailing with his wife between Sicily and Greece, prompting an intensified search. The couple had left Siracusa, on Sicily’s southeastern coast, bound for Pilos in the southwestern Peloponnese. Mutilba retired in 2021 and hoped to take up long-distance sailing and travel the world, his family told Aythami Pérez Miguel and Gloria Díez of El Norte de Castilla.
The incident happened on Tuesday, August 18, 2026, while Mutilba was fishing for tuna. His wife, Carmen Díez, 68, held a recreational-vessel licence. She remained aboard the sailboat for three days before raising the alarm, unable to make contact while the vessel was outside mobile-phone coverage. The family’s account, reported by El Norte de Castilla, says Mutilba slipped on fish blood on deck and fell overboard.
Once the boat regained a signal, Carmen contacted a family friend with nautical experience, who alerted Spanish Salvamento Marítimo. Maritime services in Spain, Italy and Greece coordinated the response along the route from Sicily toward Greece. Greek authorities located the vessel and brought Carmen to Pilos. The boat’s last known signal helped define the search area, while Mutilba’s son, Sergio, appealed for operations to continue. “We still have hope,” he said, as reported by the Greek outlet The Toc.
Carmen told the outlet she did not want to return to Spain until her husband was with her. The report described a two-phase search and said Italian authorities later informed the family that their search activity had been halted, prompting Sergio to ask Spanish authorities to continue the effort. At the time of the reporting, Mutilba had not been located and the search around Pilos remained active.
The case has drawn attention in Spain because of the three-day delay before rescuers were alerted and the coordination required among authorities from three countries. In a related story, the disappearance of Juan José Mutilba has mobilized search teams from multiple countries, reflecting the incident’s cross-border nature.
Limited mobile coverage determined when the alarm could be raised. The search relied on the boat’s last known signal and information passed through family contacts. The reports do not describe the vessel’s emergency communications equipment or establish any legal finding about the circumstances of the fall.
