MV Albedo Lifeboats Spotted on Beach, No Signs of Missing Crew

This image from EU NAVFOR clearly shows the lifeboat belongs to the MV Albedo.

Two lifeboats from the pirated MV Albedo have been found washed up on a Somali beach just north of where the ship sank, but there are still no signs of the 15 missing crew members, the European Union Naval Force (EU NAVFOR) reported Wednesday.

The MV Albedo, which was pirated in the Indian Ocean in November 2010 and held at an anchorage close to the Somali Coast, sank on Monday in rough seas, sparking fears over the fate of the 15 crew members still being held as hostages.

Following the ship’s sinking, an EU Naval Force warship and Maritime Patrol Aircraft responded and closed the scene to search for survivors, but the 15 crew members remained unaccounted for, according to an EU NAVFOR statement Tuesday.

But an update Wednesday said that during a recent aerial search, EU Naval Force Maritime Patrol Aircraft sighted two life boats on a Somali beach approximately 14 miles north of the position of the sunken MV Albedo.  No members of the MV Albedo crew or pirates were sighted in or near the lifeboats, the update added.

Photos of the lifeboats clearly show that they are from the Albedo.

Reuters previously reported that at least four crew members and seven Somali pirates died when the vessel sank, and 13 others were missing.

“We have confirmed that four foreign (crew) and seven pirates died. We are missing 13 in total,” a pirate, who gave his name as Hussein, told Reuters. “We had no boats to save them.”

The vessel had a crew of 23 when it was hijacked early on November 26, 2010 about 900 nautical miles east of Mogadishu, Somalia.

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