<p>Yes… but with all due respect, hijacking a plane with box cutters (which were legal on planes during the time) and diverting it by a couple of minutes or so at a couple hundred miles per hour, is slightly different than</p>
<p>Hijacking a heavily regulated trade vessel that sends in reports daily (almost hourly when near shore) to the Coast Guard and its own company, without being noticed by anyone on board, especially the mates on watch who only have to press a button or make a call via VHF or HF radios, and than maneuver it away from its originally planned course while still avoiding suspicion, is slightly ridiculous.</p>
<p>In addition, it should be known that steering a large vessel, like an LNG, is much different than a small boat, and navigation is much more difficult. Also, while coming into harbors, especially in the US, they need Coast Guard escorts, not to mention a trained harbor pilot (and it is exceedingly difficult to become one of those) which they would have to take on beforehand. And typically they would notify the harbor days beforehand, and if they didn’t it would send up red flags.</p>
<p>Also, hijacking a vessel in American waters would be extremely unlikely, for all above reasons, plus all crews have procedures for boarding and repelling pirates. Especially since they can A. see any ship coming at them and b. RADAR and ARPA will show them collision courses (which an attacking boat would have to follow to board). and C. even if they weren’t paying attention, most ARPA alarms would sound with 5 minutes of the other vessel getting close. Already stated facts explain why they couldn’t hijack one in foreign waters and sail it here.</p>
<p>Finally, it requires a great amount of firepower and technical expertise to be able to blow up a ship to the magnitude that would cause severe damage.</p>
<p>So, while it is still possible, unlikely…</p>
<p>Anything you hear from politicians is just protective, second-hand scare tactics, typically promoted by those who don’t want an LNG terminal in their backyard" and environmentalists.</p>
<p>Much like when Dubai ports was buying US ports, nothing bad would have come of it, by because people are ■■■■■■■■, they were easily scared by this.</p>