DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – A yacht carrying three Russians and two Egyptians reportedly went missing days ago off the coast of Yemen in the Red Sea. Its owner alleged on Monday that armed pirates took the vessel.
The reported disappearance of the 30 Minutes, a 19-meter (62-foot) yacht registered in Panama to a Russian based in Dubai, comes as other vessels have faced attacks amid the Saudi-led war tearing apart the Arab world’s poorest nation.
The 30 Minutes last sent location data showing that it was off Farasan Island near Jazan, Saudi Arabia, on April 19, owner Dmitriy Chuguevskiy told The Associated Press. The vessel then disappeared, not reaching Djibouti, where it had been scheduled to arrive, he said.
Chuguevskiy said the ship did not carry an Automatic Identification System transponder, which is standard for ships moving through dangerous or busy waterways.
On Sunday, the Russian Embassy in Saudi Arabia issued a statement saying that “radio contact was lost with the ship.”
“In cooperation with the Saudi authorities, we continue to take all necessary actions to clarify the fate of the missing ship, as well as to provide prompt assistance to Russian citizens on board,” the embassy said.
Chuguevskiy, however, alleged that the 30 Minutes’ Egyptian captain had been able to make a distress call, heard by Saudi authorities, saying the vessel was under attack by armed pirates.
“Our assumption is they got kidnapped,” Chuguevskiy said.
It remains to be seen what action, if any, Saudi officials took after the claimed distress call. The Saudi government did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the AP.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, a British military watch over Mideast shipping, said its staff had been “made aware of an incident in the area and are carrying out (an) investigation.” A European Union anti-piracy patrol in the region, called Operation Atlanta, said it was “monitoring the situation in order to clarify the event due to the lack of reliable information about it.”