The Indian Navy and coast guard on Saturday swung into action to render help to a merchant vessel, suspected to be the target of a drone attack in the Arabian Sea, and diverted a warship and a patrol vessel to a location 217 nautical miles off the Gujarat’s Porbandar coast where the Liberian-flagged ship was disabled after its power generation system was hit, Indian officials monitoring the situation said.
The navy and the coast guard also scrambled their maritime surveillance planes, a P-8I and a Dornier, to respond to the emergency within minutes of receiving information about the emergency flagged by the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), the position reporting and emergency incident response interface with merchant ships at sea, the officials said on the condition of anonymity.
In a security notification issued on Saturday, UKMTO said it received a report of “an attack by Uncrewed Aerial System (UAS) on a vessel causing an explosion and fire.” It said the incident took place 200 nautical miles south-west of Gujarat’s Veraval coast. “Fire extinguished, no casualties. Authorities are investigating. Vessels are advised to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity to UKMTO,” the notification said.
It was not immediately known who was behind the incident.
The ship in distress, MV Chem Pluto, is carrying a crew of 22 sailors including 21 Indian nationals, HT has learnt. All of them are safe. The master in command of the vessel is an Indian: Deepesh Badikkihil. The only non-Indian crew is from Vietnam.
The chemical tanker carrying ethylene dichloride was on its way from Saudi Arabia’s Jubail port to New Mangalore in Karnataka, said one of the officials cited above.
The incident comes at a time when the region is facing an array of security challenges including Houthi militia targeting commercial shipping in the Red Sea after the Israel-Hamas conflict began on October 7, and the apparent resurgence of piracy. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels declared their support for Hamas.
After receiving information about Chem Pluto, the Mumbai-based Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC) activated the International SafetyNET to rush the nearest merchant vessel in the area to inspect the chemical tanker, said a second official. The SafetyNET is the service for broadcasting and automatic reception of maritime safety information via satellite communications.
“MV Merlin, which was in the area, went to check on MV Chem Pluto. Merlin reported that the Chem Pluto crew was safe, but the ship’s power generation had failed. The navy and coast guard diverted their ships to the area as it is on the fringes on India’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ),” said a third official. Every coastal country’s EEZ extends to 200 nautical miles from its shores, and it has exclusive rights to all resources in the water, including oil, natural gas and fish.
The warship and the coast guard’s offshore patrol vessel Vikram are expected to reach Chem Pluto’s location on Saturday night, the officials said.
INS Kochi had earlier intercepted Maltese-flagged merchant vessel Ruen that was seized by unknown attackers in the Arabian Sea on December 14. It tailed the hijacked vessel until it entered the territorial waters of Somalia. One of the 18 sailors on board MV Ruen was on December 18 transferred to the Indian stealth destroyer for medical assistance after he was injured. He was transferred ashore at Oman the following day.
“In the light of Ruen incident and towards augmenting the anti-piracy efforts in the Gulf of Aden area, the Indian Navy has deployed another indigenous guided missile destroyer in the region. The Indian Navy remains committed to ensuring safety of merchant shipping and rendering assistance to the mariners at sea, as a ‘first responder’ in the region,” the navy said in a statement on December 21.
The European Union Naval Force (EUNAVFOR) Operation Atalanta – the EU maritime security operation in the western Indian Ocean – also swung into action to track Ruen and join the anti-piracy effort.
The Ruen incident put piracy in the Arabian Sea back in the spotlight. Pirate attacks in the region peaked between 2008 and 2013 but had steadily declined thereafter because of the concerted efforts of the multinational maritime task force operating in the region.
The region accounted for almost 700 pirate attacks during 2008-13, but the figure nosedived to a mere 16 during 2014-19, according to EUNAVFOR data. The December 14 incident was the first in the last three years. The EUNAVFOR figures cover all attacks mounted by suspected pirates including the ones repelled, aborted and those leading to ships landing in pirate hands and crews being taken hostage.
The Indian Navy has been deployed in the Gulf of Aden for more than 15 years.
At any given time, one Indian warship has been carrying out round-the-clock anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden since October 23, 2008, to protect Indian seaborne trade, instil confidence in the seafaring community and act as a deterrent for pirates.
So far 107 Indian warships have been deployed in the Gulf of Aden to ensure safe passage of India-flagged merchant vessels and they have thwarted scores of piracy attempts and safely escorted thousands of ships with tens of thousands of Indian sailors.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu on December 19 discussed the latest developments in the Israel-Hamas conflict with the Indian leader emphasising the need for an early resolution of hostilities.
The safety of maritime traffic also figured in the conversation against the backdrop of attacks on merchant shipping in the Red Sea by the Houthi rebels. Several shipping companies have suspended their operations in the Red Sea following the attacks.