Group CEO of hijacked ship holding talks with pirates

In a bid to expedite the process of freeing the hijacked ship — MT Fairchem Bogey — the vessel management company Anglo-Eastern Ship Management has sent its top executive group CEO to hold talks with the sea pirates.

Giving details to Deccan Herald, Ferdi Stolzeberg of MTI (Network Asia) from Hong Kong informed that “group CEO Peter Cremers is greatly concerned for the well being of the crew and is doing his utmost as the manager of the ship.” Refusing to divulge details of the venue of the talks or the stage at which the talks have reached, Stolzeberg just mentioned that “since the discussions for the return of the crew and ship has started and reached a crucial stage, we cannot comment on any proceedings to protect the interests of the crew.”

The ship MT Fairchem Bogey, with 21 Indian onboard, was hijacked from Omanian port Salalah. Though the nationality of the pirates was not immediately known, past records of high-seas hijacking indicated the work of Somalian pirates.

Though after a couple of days, maritime authorities were able to locate the whereabouts of the ship in Somalian waters, the issue over the identity of the organised sea pirate groups still remains a mystery.

It was only after the ship dropped her anchor at Garacad, that maritime high-seas security experts were finally able to zero down on the group which had carried out the hijacking. Along Somalian coastline, three separate pirate groups operate in three ear-marked coastal turfs like northern, central and southern.

This is for the first time that a ship has been hijacked from a designated anchorage area, considered to be a high-security region as traffic in this bay is monitored round-the-clock by authorities.

What has irked the shipping officials here is that when the pirates were attempting to board the ship, the captain of MT Fairchem Bogey had immediately flashed SOS message to the port authorities as well as to Omani Coast Guard.