FBI joins effort in hostage standoff with pirates

FBI hostage negotiators joined U.S. Navy efforts Thursday to free an American cargo ship captain held captive on a lifeboat by Somali pirates. A U.S. destroyer and a spy plane kept a close watch in the high-seas standoff near the Horn of Africa.

The pirates tried to hijack the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama on Wednesday, but Capt. Richard Phillips thwarted their takeover by telling his crew of about 20 to lock themselves in a room, the crew told stateside relatives.

The crew later overpowered some of the pirates, but Phillips surrendered himself to the bandits to safeguard his crew, and at least four of them fled with him to an enclosed lifeboat, the relatives said. It was the first such attack on American sailors in about 200 years.

Kevin Speers, a spokesman for the Maersk shipping company, said the pirates have made no demands yet to the company and the captain’s safe return is its top priority.

The Maersk Alabama is again sailing toward the Kenyan port of Mombasa – its original destination, according to Capt. Joseph Murphy, a professor at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy whose son, Shane Murphy, is second-in-command. A person reached by The Associated Press by phone on the bridge of the vessel confirmed: “We’re moving.”

A U.S. official, speaking on grounds of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, also said a military team of armed guards was aboard the Maersk Alabama. Joseph Murphy said there were 18 guards aboard.

Earlier Thursday, the USS Bainbridge arrived near the Maersk Alabama and the lifeboat with the pirates and Phillips, Speers told AP Radio, adding that the lifeboat was out of fuel and “dead in the water.”

The U.S. Navy sent up P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft and had video of the scene.
The lifeboats usually are about 28 feet long, designed to hold a maximum of 34 people, and made of reinforced Fiberglas, Joseph Murphy said. They carry water and food for 34 people for 10 days and, with portholes closed, no one can see inside, he added.

President Barack Obama, facing one of his first national security tests, declined to comment on the standoff. Attorney General Eric Holder said the FBI was assisting the Navy.

“We’re in contact with the people on the scene off the coast of Africa,” he said. “The FBI people are here at Quantico, and so they are using telecommunications means to stay in touch with them.”