Vanished ship found- eight arrested

  • 2009-08-18
  • TBT Staff

The ship disappeared 2,500 miles from its destination

MOSCOW - The search for the merchant ship "Arctic Sea" is  over, after weeks of hunting. Russia has arrested eight people who hijacked the merchant ship"Arctic Sea" on July 24 with Russian, Latvian and Estonian citizenson board announced  the Russian DefenseMinister Anatoly Serdyukov.

"All crew members are alive, and they are feeling well. They were not under armed control," he said.

"They are being questioned to clarify all the circumstances of thedisappearance. We will explain what happened with it, whycommunications with it were lost, why it changed its itinerary."

According to the Associated Press, Russia'snavy on August 17 found the missing ship, whose disappearance confused maritimeauthorities across Europe for over two weeks, in the Atlantic Ocean 300 miles from the Cape Verdeislands.

The Maltese-registered vessel, carrying a1.3-million dollars of timber, wassupposed to have docked on August 4 in the Algerian port of Bejaiabut never reached their destination.