Somali pirates hijack American yacht

NATO Operation Ocean Shield today said that at  1323 UTC  February 18,  a yacht was reported hijacked by pirates in position 18°00 N 061°02 E.

The BBC quotes Ecoterra International as identifying the yacht as the S/V Quest, owned by an American retired couple, and saying that it was hijacked 240 nautical miles off Oman en route from India to Oman.

Jean and Scott Adam, the yacht’s owners, have been sailing it around the world since 2002, according to their website. The couple wrote on the site that they had taken on two new crew members last year.

Somalia’s UN mission confirmed for the Associated Press news agency in New York that the S/V Quest had been hijacked.

ABC News report U.S. officials as confirming that the yacht has been seized by pirates, but saying that it is unclear how many Americans may have been aboard have been aboard at the time the boat was seized. One U.S. official said there were two males and two females aboard the vessel at the time that it was seized.

February 18, 2011