Two More Piracy Incidents in Singapore Strait

ReCAAP Information Sharing Centre issued an Incident Alert on Sunday regarding incidents involving ships while underway in the eastbound lane of Singapore Strait. 

Two incidents occurred on February 9 within an hour to ships while underway in the eastbound lane of the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS). 

At about 0220 hrs the bulk carrier New Spirit was boarded by six perpetrators while underway at about 5.1 nautical miles from Nongsa Point, Indonesia. They were armed with knives when seen in the engine room but ran onto the deck when they saw the crew. The master mustered the crew in the bridge, and no perpetrators were found when the ship was later inspected by the Singapore Police. Nothing was reported stolen.

At about 0252 hrs the tanker Swarna Jayanti was underway at about 6.2 nautical miles from Nongsa Point when the crew sighted one perpetrator in the engine room. The master raised the alarm, mustered the crew and conducted search. Some valves (engine spares) were reported missing from the engine room. 

As no arrests were made, there may be further incidents, warns ReCAAP ISC.

These incidents bring the tally to six incidents reported in the Singapore Strait since January 2020, all in the eastbound lane of the TSS. 

31 incidents were reported in the Singapore Strait in 2019. Of these, 17 occurred to ships while underway in the eastbound lane of the TSS and 14 occurred in the westbound lane. 
 
All ships are advised to exercise utmost vigilance, adopt extra precautionary measures and report all incidents immediately to the nearest coastal State.