The Food Flotilla for Myanmar vessel, the Nautical Aliya, had a close brush with disaster this morning when it narrowly avoided colliding with a fishing boat some 17 nautical miles west of Sittwe. In the 12am local time (2am Malaysian time) incident, the local fishing boat crossed the path of the Nautical Aliya, which is en route to Chittagong, at a distance of about 200 metres. However, the boat then slowly re-entered the path of the larger vessel and began drifting towards it. Luckily, 2nd Officer Justin Savari Nathan, 24, was alert to the situation and quickly steered the ship sharply away from the fishing boat, with just metres to spare. “I noticed that the fishing boat was on a (collision course) with us, and so I had to take the vessel off its autopilot cruise mode and steer it to starboard (right), while overtaking the boat. The fishing boat was trawling, and if I had steered to the port (left) side, the Nautical Aliya could have become entangled in the fishing net, which could have caused a capsize,” he said. Justin said that in the event of a collision, the much smaller fishing boat would have capsized, and the worst case scenario is that the Nautical Aliya would have been detained by Myanmar authorities for investigation into the collision thus jeopardising the mission. The sharp turn Justin was forced to make was felt by everyone on board the Nautical Aliya, creating panic among passengers who were still awake at the hour. Chief de Mission Datuk Seri Abdul Azeez Rahim, who was alerted to the incident, rushed to the bridge immediately after and was briefed on the situation by the ship’s captain. Nautical Aliya captain Mohamad Firdaus Faisal Mohamed assured Abdul Azeez that everything was under control. “I also informed the Myanmar Navy of our situation and explained that we had to make an emergency turn to avoid a sea collision with the trawler,” he said. Firdaus said they are keeping constant watch on the seascape in Myanmar, as there are many small fishing boats moving about in the dark, wee hours.