Two former Navy SEALs working anti-pirate security have been found dead aboard the container ship depicted in the movie "Captain Phillips" starring Tom Hanks, according to authorities in the Seychelles.
Police in the vacation islands off Africa's southeastern coast said the bodies of the two former SEALs were found Tuesday aboard the Maersk Alabama, which was hijacked by Somali pirates in a 2009 incident that was the basis for the movie released last year.
The cause of the deaths was not immediately disclosed and the U.S. Coast Guard was investigating. The former SEALs were part of a 24-member crew aboard the Maersk Alabama, which moored off the Seychelles on Sunday.
The families of the two former SEALs asked that their identities not be disclosed.
CNN reported local police as stating that "a postmortem will be carried out this week in order to establish the cause of their sudden deaths while the police investigate the possible circumstances which led to these incidents."
"We are monitoring the report involving the two citizens and we offer our condolences to the two families," U.S. Coast Guard Senior Chief Petty Officer told CNN . "An investigator from Coast Guard Activities Europe is engaged in a Coast Guard investigation but due to the nature of the investigation that will be about all that we can provide right now," Tremper said.
The Trident Group security firm confirmed that the two former SEALs were employees. The Trident Group, founded in 2000 by former SEALs and Navy Surface Warfare officers, bills itself on its website as "the U.S. Market Leader in Anti-Piracy & Maritime Security Operations World-Wide."
On April 8, 2009, four Somali pirates hijacked the Maersk Alabama and took Capt. Richard Phillips hostage aboard a lifeboat about 200 miles off the Somali coast. The next day, the destroyer Bainbridge arrived at the scene.
On April 12, sharpshooters from SEAL Team Six, firing from the fantail of the Bainbridge, killed three Somali pirates with shots to the head. Phillips was rescued in good condition.
