CRISIS COMMUNICATION ASSIGNMENT - Essay Example

Pirates were armed with deadly weapons including AK-47 rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and Anti-tank rocket launches at the time of the attack that could devastate the ship. The pirates are dressed in military fatigues. Furthermore, they use high tech satellites equipments to communicate with their mother ship. The high tech phones and GPS systems were used by terrorist pirates to coordinate attacks using small but very fast speed boats that are resupplied by mother ship. When the pirates fired on the ship, crew members gathered all the passengers in a central lounge away from decks and windows during the attack.

Luckily, no serious hurts have been reported. However, a number of passengers and crew members are under shock and ship sustained minor damages. The pirates followed Smooth Magic ship and boarded it on Monday morning after four hour chase. The ship through its captain sent a distress call but no naval ship was near at that time to rescue it. Following fierce attack on the ship, the captain surrendered the ship to pirates to secure safety of all people on board as well as the entire ship. The Smooth Magic was then commandeered by the pirates to southern part of Somalia.

This brings to ten the number of vessels that pirates are holding captive with passengers and crew in the lawless southern section of Somali. . The hijacking incident is being monitored closely by the company in collaboration with relevant Maritime authorities to protect the lives of passengers and crew members on board and the ship at large. The Smooth Magic cruise ship has six hundred passengers and three hundred crew members on board. On board the cruise ship are American, Europeans, Asians and Africans.

According to captain John Williams of the Smooth Magic, the number of pirates who hijacked Smooth Magic is estimated to be about forty eight. The company has been communicating with the Captain, who updates the company on the developments and he has assured the company that no single person has been hurt so far. Furthermore, there are no incidents of pirate’s ruthlessness because our crew members and passengers cooperated. The pirates have also not robbed passengers of their personal belongings because their leader categorically stated that they are only interested on ransom and have instructed his fellow armed pirates not to rob passengers or crew members.

Communication between the company and the pirates via satellite phone revealed that the pirates are demanding a ransom of $500,000. The leader of the pirates only known has Adan refused to divulge more information about themselves but promised to keep the passengers, crew members and entire ship safe if their demands are met. This unfortunate hijacking incident is the first to happen to our ships. However, the company is doing all it can to ensure that all passengers and crew on board as well as the entire ship are safe.

The company is negotiating with the pirates on the best possible outcome. The company considers the hijacking incident serious. Hence, it has placed the incident on high dimension/high control crisis.