Originally Posted by
ORAC
A strange example in the present day of a cruise ship being ordered to dock rather than being ordered to stay away......
I say that they simply wanted to seize the cruise ship. It would be something very nice to have. Hence, no firing at it. Just some intimidation to force it to comply that went very wrong.
They ordered the ship to go to a Venezuelan port, and if they accomplished that, it would be game over for the crew, and the ship.
Some BS excuse would be provided to justify the retention of the ship, and the crew would go through a very bad experience for some time in a Venezuelan prison, again, to justify the seizure of ship.
In 2004 a Citation X was seized in Venezuela on a drug run. The passengers (2 old ladies) were involved on the subject, as well as a retired old guy (ex local CAA) that was working as Safety adviser in the company that was operating the aircraft.
Nobody of the crew was involved on the subject. In any case they accused the FO of being involved on the subject, and he was for more than a year in Caracas in something like "house arrest" to justify what they really wanted, which was to keep the aircraft for themselves.
Naturally this aircraft never went outside of Venzuela afterwards. They knew that it would be re-seized again, and they would loose it.