On Sunday, February 9, two unauthorised boarding incidents occurred within an interval of an hour on ships while underway in the eastbound lane of the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) in the Singapore Strait, the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia (ReCAAP) said in an alert published later that same day.
Some engine spares were stolen in one incident, and nothing was reported stolen in the other. There was no confrontation between the perpetrators and the crew in both cases.
With these two incidents, a total of six incidents have been reported in the Singapore Strait since January 2020, all in the eastbound lane of the TSS in the Singapore Strait.
The first incident occurred at about 02:20 local time on the bulk carrier New Spirit while it was underway at about 5.1 nautical miles from Nongsa Point, Indonesia. Six perpetrators armed with knives were seen in the vessel's engine room.
The perpetrators then ran onto the deck when they saw the crew. The master mustered the crew in the bridge and accounted for all of them.
The master then reported the incident to Singapore VTIS East and requested to go to Singapore to conduct further search.
Upon arrival in Singapore, the Singapore Police Coast Guard boarded the ship to conduct further search, but no perpetrators were found and nothing was reported stolen.
The second incident occurred at about 02:52 on the tanker Swarna Jayanti while it was underway at about 6.2 nautical miles from Nongsa Point, Indonesia.
After the crew sighted one perpetrator in the engine room, the master raised the alarm, mustered the crew, and conducted a search for the perpetrator.
Some valves (engine spares) were reported missing from the engine room.
The master reported the incident to Singapore VTIS East. The crew was not injured.
