Navy says hijacking foiled after rescuing crew, including Indians, on distressed ship

In a swift operation, the Indian Navy on Friday rescued all 21 crew members, including 15 Indians, onboard the distressed cargo vessel off Somalia coast.

The Navy rushed its warship INS Chennai and deployed maritime operations after a distress signal from the cargo ship signalled the hijacking on Thursday.

The Navy’s elite Marine Commandos, or Marcos, conducted sanitisation operations on the vessel and confirmed the absence of hijackers, the Navy said.

The Liberian-flagged ship MV Lila Norfolk was sailing from Port Du Aco (Brazil) and was bound for Khalifa Bin Salman in Bahrain. The merchant vessel sent a message on the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) portal saying five to six unknown armed personnel had boarded on the evening of January 4, the Indian Navy statement said.

The Indian Navy’s warship INS Chennai, maritime patrol aircraft P-8I and long-range Predator MQ9B drone, were deployed to assist the vessel. INS Chennai was diverted from her anti-piracy patrol and it intercepted the vessel at 3.15 pm in the North Arabian Sea.

The Navy aircraft overflew the vessel on Friday morning and established contact with the vessel. Following this, the Navy’s elite Marcos embarked on the cargo vessel to conduct sanitisation operations and rescued the crew members.

“The attempt of hijacking by the pirates was probably abandoned with the forceful warning by the Indian Navy’s Maritime Patrol Aircraft of interception by Indian Naval warship,” the Navy said in a statement.

“INS Chennai is in the vicinity of MV and rendering support to restore the power generation and propulsion, and commence her voyage to next port of call,” the statement added.

Recently, Liberian-flagged vessel MV Chem Pluto, with 21 Indian crew members, was the target of a drone attack off India’s west coast on December 23 last year.

Besides MV Chem Pluto, another commercial oil tanker that was on the way to India came under a suspected drone strike in the Southern Red Sea on the same day. The vessel had a team of 25 Indian crew.

In another incident, Malta-flagged vessel MV Ruen was hijacked on December 14 by pirates.

The Indian Navy has said it continues to monitor the maritime security situation in the North and Central Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden.