ReCAAP ISC launched its piracy weekly report concerning the timeframe between 28 January to 2 February 2020, reporting three incidents of category 4, with two of them occurring onboard vessels at anchorages in Indonesia and one in the Philippines.
One week before, 21-27 January, ReCAAP ISC reported three armed robberies against ships, comprising one CAT 3 incident and two CAT 4 incidents.
# Accident 1 – 29 January 2020
The container ship Cosco Sao Paulo was at anchor in Manila, the Philippines, when its crew noticed a number of perpetrators having boarded the vessel. Two of the storage rooms were broken into.
Then, the crew searched for the perpetrators and checked on the inventory of the ship’s property.
The stolen items included a set of fireman breathing device, two sets of immersion and thermal protective suits, 28 casks of paints, 34 pieces of firehose hand guns and 34 pieces of fire hydrant covers.
Therefore, the captain reported the incident to Vessel Traffic Management System (VTMS) Manila, and the Philippine Coast Guard Sub Station boarded the ship for inquiry and advised the master and crew to improve their security measures and report similar incidents to the nearest Philippine Coast Guard units.
# Accident 2 – 26 January 2020
The petroleum/chemical tanker FSL London was at anchorage in Belawan, Indonesia, when the duty officer on the bridge saw a suspicious boat heading out from the ship.
Thus, the security team found out that the vessel was missing several buckets of paint, a fire hose, fire hydrant bronze caps and sounding pipe covers missing.
The investigation resulted that the perpetrators boarded the ship through the anchor chain hawse pipe.
# Accident 3 – 22 January 2020
The bulk carrier RHL Clarita was anchored at Taboneo, South Kalimantan in Indonesia, when the crew found out that the lock to the bosun store was broken, while the ship was missing two rolls of power cable (75 m) and one used rope (25 m) were stolen.
In addition, the crew never saw or found the perpetrators onboard. Yet, the incident was reported to the Taboneo rolls of power cable (75 m) and one used rope (25 m) were stolen.
The ReCAAP ISC urges ship master and crew to report all incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships to the nearest coastal State and flag State, exercise vigilance and adopt relevant preventive measures taking reference from the Regional Guide to Counter Piracy and Armed Robbery Against Ships in Asia.
