An operation was underway on Monday to salvage the liquefied petroleum gas tanker MV Falcon, which remains on fire and adrift in the Gulf of Aden following an October 18 explosion on board, maritime security sources said.
The Cameroon-flagged vessel was fully laden when the explosion occurred at 0700 GMT as it was sailing off Yemen, forcing most of its 26 crew members to abandon the vessel.
The cause of the blast is unclear, but early indications suggest it was an accident related to its cargo, the European Union's naval mission Aspides and the sources have said.Two of its crew members are still unaccounted for. The rest, recovered by passing merchant vessels, have been safely transferred to Djibouti.
A private company has taken on the salvage operation, Aspides said. Maritime security sources said that a firefighting vessel was alongside the MV Falcon on Monday. Efforts to salvage the vessel are still underway, one of the sources said.
The MV Falcon was travelling from Oman's Sohar Port to Djibouti when the blast occurred. A Houthi defence ministry official said the group had no connection to the incident, the Houthi-run Saba news agency reported.
Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis have launched repeated drone and missile strikes on ships in the Red Sea region since 2023, saying their attacks are acts of solidarity with Palestinians in Israel's war in Gaza.Aspides has advised vessels sailing in the area to exert caution due to the incident, which posed a navigational hazard.
