8/24/2023 0 Comments Captain phillips somali pirates![]() ![]() Perry had initially taken main engine control away from the bridge and 1st A/E Matt Fisher had taken control of the steering gear. As the pirates approached, the remaining crew fired flares in addition, Perry and 1st A/E Matt Fisher swung the ship's rudder, which swamped the pirate skiff. When the pirate alarm sounded early on Wednesday, 8 April, Chief Engineer Mike Perry brought 14 members of the crew into a "secure room" that the engineers had been in the process of fortifying for just such a purpose. Their training included the use of small arms, anti-terror, basic safety, first aid, and other security-related courses. The crew members of the Maersk Alabama had received anti-piracy training from union training schools, and had drilled aboard the ship a day previously. All four of the pirates were between 17 and 19 years old, according to U.S. On 8 April 2009, four pirates based on the FV Win Far 161 attacked the ship. He ship, with a crew of 20, loaded with 17,000 metric tons of cargo, was bound for Mombasa, Kenya. The hijacking also inspired the 2013 film Captain Phillips, with Tom Hanks playing Richard Phillips in the title role, Barkhad Abdi playing Abduwali Muse and Faysal Ahmed playing Najee. The story of the incident was reported in the book A Captain's Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea (2010) by Stephan Talty and Captain Richard Phillips, who had been master of the vessel at the time of the incident. It was the sixth vessel in a week to be attacked by pirates who had previously extorted ransoms in the tens of millions of dollars. It was the first successful pirate seizure of a ship registered under the American flag since the early 19th century. The siege ended after a rescue effort by the U.S. The combination of the one less pirate and the others on steadier water would have "put the sniper team in excellent condition," Humphries said.The Maersk Alabama hijacking was a series of maritime events that began with four pirates in the Indian Ocean seizing the cargo ship MV Maersk Alabama 240 nautical miles (440 km 280 mi) southeast of the port city of Eyl, Somalia. The Bainbridge convinced one pirate to come aboard the Bainbridge to seek medical attention and the other pirates allowed their lifeboat to be towed out of rough seas to a calmer area.ĭuring the towing, the boat was pulled to within 40 yards of the Bainbridge, and the act of towing made the snipers' jobs easier by putting their lifeboat in the middle of the large ship's wake which calmed the unruly waves and steadied the pirates as targets. Bainbridge where the snipers were deployed was also heaving with the waves. The waves turned the lifeboat into a moving target, and the rear of the U.S.S. "If the sea was flat, the shot would be relatively simple."ĭuring the five day standoff, the Navy worked to get close to the pirates, but as their patience wore thin, the seas became rougher. "The shot's extremely difficult to make depending on equipment that shooters have," he said. "If you hit the central nervous system, the probability is greatly reduced." "There's only one way to be assured no involuntary trigger squeeze, and that is a head shot," Humphries said. SEAL sharpshooters are trained to hit targets "under a minute," meaning they are able to hit within an inch of a target from 100 yards, former Navy SEAL Harry Humphries told .įor the snipers who killed the three Somali pirates, it had to be a "head shot," Humphries said, because one of the pirates was holding an AK-47 pointed at the back of American freighter captain Richard Phllips. ![]() Their job was made easier by the pirates' willingness to allow their boat to be towed, smoothing out the sea and settling them into an even keel. Ap— - At least one former SEAL was not surprised that each of the three Somali pirates was killed with just one shot, despite the fact that they were on a rolling sea and the Navy snipers had to make a successful "head shot," something he said is "extremely difficult."
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |