The MV Sirius Star, a brand new tanker with a 25-member crew, was seized at about 10 am on Saturday more than 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya, the Navy said. The area lies far south of the zone where warships have increased their patrols this year in the Gulf of Aden, one of the busiest channels in the world, leading to and from the Suez Canal, and the scene of most past attacks.
The massive supertanker would seem to present a daunting target for the pirates, who usually operate in small speedboats. At 1,080 feet, it is the length of an aircraft carrier and can carry about 2 million barrels of oil.
But experts said its crew may have felt a false sense of security so far from shore, even though pirates have repeatedly demonstrated their skill in taking down big prizes.
Details of Saturday`s attack were not known, but in past seizures, pirates have used ropes and ladders to climb the hull — and on large ships, the crew often doesn`t notice them until it`s too late. On the Sirius Star, the attackers likely would have had to scale about 30 feet from the water to the deck.
Somali pirates demand $5 mn for Ukraine ship
Image: Map locating hijack of Saudi super tanker by Somalian pirates. Pirates have seized control of the Saudi-owned super tanker Sirius Star off the east coast of Africa and are taking it towards a Somali port, the US Navy said on Monday.
