After days of being declared missing, the Panama flagged oil tanker; Pantelena with 17 Georgian and two Russian resurfaced last weekend, even as officials refuse to comment on what became of the ship, its cargo and its crew.
The ill-fated ship; Pantelena which was reportedly ‘found’ last weekend off the coast of Congo, after being last seen off the coast of Garbon eventually sailed into Lome port.
Giving an insight into the likelihood of piracy, why the ship "turned off its locator beacon," a device that tracks a vessel's position by satellite, on August 4, a regional military source in Africa said that "the first thing that pirates do when they board a ship is to cut off this beacon."
Georgia's foreign ministry had said earlier that a search operation was being conducted with the help of the British maritime authorities and that there were concerns for the 17 Georgian and two Russian sailors onboard.
But a senior Georgian diplomat told AFP weekend on condition of anonymity that "what happened at the Pantelena probably wasn't an instance of piracy."
"The incident is now settled," the diplomat said without giving further details.
Confirming the state of the crew an official of the ship, assured that, “Our guys are alive and well. The ship is already in the port of Lome (Togo’s capital) and soon representatives of our company will meet them”
“I am almost certain that this was an attack by pirates ” , he added.
Also suspecting piracy, Vladimer Konstantinidu, deputy head of the Georgian foreign ministry’s consulate department, said the ministry had not yet been able to communicate with the returning crew but could not rule out that the tanker had been hijacked.
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