112 incident

Spanish entrepreneur goes missing after falling overboard in Sicily, while his wife spends three days adrift

Juan José Mutilba was sailing in the Mediterranean when he had an accident and fell overboard

Aythami Pérez Miguel

Burgos

24/08/2026 a las 11:00h.

Juan José Mutilba, a 66-year-old business owner from the city of Burgos, went missing on Tuesday, 18 August, when he fell overboard from ... the sailing boat on which he was travelling with his wife between Syracuse, in Sicily, and Pylos (Greece).

According to their son, Sergio, who spoke from Greece, Mutilba and his wife were on holiday.

They set out on Monday, 17 August, and "everything was going well". On Tuesday, Juan José caught a tuna and, while cleaning the blood from the fish off the boat, he fell into the water.

Days adrift

His wife was unable to react: she froze. Although she heard her husband asking her to switch off the engine, she did not know how to act in those moments of fear and tension.

The woman holds a PER (recreational craft skipper) licence, but, as her son explained, "it's not the same having to handle a boat as big as the one they were on in those circumstances".

The boat continued and Juan José was left adrift.

The woman tried to call for help, but there was no mobile signal and no way of communicating. She remained aboard like that for three days, with no signal, alone and with her husband missing. Her son said that she is going through a very difficult time and is "deeply affected".

The woman had provisions, but remained cut off from the outside world. She tried to contact the emergency services. Finally, after three days on her own, she managed to get a signal and call a family friend, who raised the alarm.

The emergency services subsequently managed to locate the boat.

Sergio is in Greece "trying to get the authorities to take action". "Although many days have passed, we want them to look for him, to at least try," he said. "What we know is that they have done very little. It is up to Italy to look for him, but we're not quite sure what's being done and we haven't received much help or support from the Spanish Embassy or Consulate in Italy either," he stated.

Juan José Mutilba used to run Mutrobe S.L., a company specialising in the distribution of water to businesses. His son has recently taken over this role alongside a business partner. Since retiring, Juan José and his wife have often gone on sailing trips.

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