Countering Sea Pirates: Indian Patrol Plane "Thwarts" Pirates in Arabian Sea

Times of India report Navy plane thwarts piracy bid in Arabian Sea

A naval Poseidon-8I long-range patrol aircraft managed to thwart a piracy attack on the high seas by flying over a merchant vessel which was being targeted by "a pirate mother

ship and two skiffs" around 800 nautical miles from Mumbai last week.

The P-8I, based at the naval air station INS Rajali at Arakkonam in Tamil Nadu, was on a routine surveillance mission over the Arabian Sea when it received distress calls from the merchant vessel, the Malta-flagged MV Sezai Selah, on the international Channel 16 distress radio on April 15.

Indian Navy P-8I

"The pirate mother ship and the two high-speed skiffs had come quite close to the merchant vessel. The P-8I immediately responded and made warning transmissions over Channel 16 while flying over the pirate boats...they got frightened and altered course to leave MV Sezai Selah alone," said an official.

Nicely done.