There were several crew members on board the MV Falcon. According to the Aspides mission, one sailor is missing and one remains on board the ship. The rest were evacuated by nearby units. A Greek frigate was sent to the scene to support rescue and security operations.
The explosion occurred on Saturday while the ship was about 113 nautical miles southeast of the port of Aden. The gas carrier, flying the flag of Cameroon, was sailing from the port of Suhar in Oman to Djibouti with a cargo of LNG. British maritime security company Ambrey said no signs of a missile attack or unmanned aerial vehicle activity were detected in the area.
Ambrey also emphasized that the profile of the MV Falcon does not match the targets that have been attacked in recent years by Yemen's Houthi rebels allied with Iran. Moreover, the Saba news agency, associated with the rebels, denied that they had any connection with the incident.
Disruption on a key shipping route
The explosion of the MV Falcon is another incident that affects the safety of navigation in the region. In recent months, Houthi rebels have repeatedly fired on civilian units as an expression of support for the Palestinians after the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023. These actions disrupted the flow of goods through one of the most important shipping routes in the world – the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.
The Aspides mission appealed to ships near the incident site to exercise extreme caution and avoid approaching the drifting gas carrier.
