Action Stations - Flight 217 of 815 Naval Air Squadron - The LYNX HMA.8 helicopter from this deployed unit of the Fleet Air Arm is serving on the French Frigate FLF SURCOUF as part of Operation Atalanta, the European Union’s counter-piracy mission off the Horn of Africa.      The LYNX was sent ahead by the French warship to find the suspected pirates after the American Oliver Hazard Perry Class Frigate USS HALYBURTON operating as part of NATO’s Operation Ocean Shield, received a distress call from a merchant vessel reporting she was under attack from six men armed with rocket-propelled grenades.    The merchant vessel, the MSC JASMINE, sailing 260 miles off the Somali coast, managed to repel the attack themselves, a German EU maritime patrol aircraft was scrambled to track the suspect vessel, which was by then towing another boat with several more men on board.

The Fleet Air Arm LYNX sped to the scene and ordered the vessels to stop while French commandos from SURCOUF arrived alongside in a fast boat and quickly boarded, resulting in the suspected pirates swiftly surrendering.     Upon searching the pirates’ boats, the commandos also discovered containers of diesel and water and twelve suspects are now being held on board FLF SURCOUF for evidence collection in order to fully assess the possibility of prosecution.