What happened?
A vessel was boarded by around seven intruders while transiting the Singapore Straits. The intruders entered the vessel’s steering gear room and the bottom floor through engine room escape trunk. They went to the engine room store and took some of the engine stores. While fleeing, one intruder caused a vessel’s crew to suffer eye injury.
The injured crew was standing at the engine room incinerator platform, which was at the same level as the Engine Control Room; see image below:
Why did it happen?
The vessel had failed to implement security measures as required by the Ship’s Security Plan (SSP) and Company’s Security Circulars. The steering gear door was left open (see Figures 1, 2, 3 and 4 below).
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Figure 1: Steering gear room access door was left opened |
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Figure 2: The engine room escape trunk used by the intruders. |
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Figure 3: Engine Room Store where engine parts were taken by the intruders. |
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Figure 4: Intruders’ footprints on starboard quarter. Note: Razor wire was rigged only after the incident. |
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Conclusion
MPA had issued an advisory following the incident to all Singapore-registered ship owners, managers, operators, Company Security Officers, Ship Security Officer and masters on 11 March 2025, titled “Advisory for Singapore Registered Ships (SRS) Transiting the Singapore Strait – Security Precautions”.
The shipping community is remined to ensure shipboard compliance of the SSP and consider heighten precautionary measures at identified risk areas where occurrences of unauthorised boarding are known.