Ninoy Aquino International Airport was set to receive 14 returning Filipino seafarers at 4:30 p.m. on August 10, 2026, closing out a weeks-long effort to bring them back from Oman after their tanker was hit by a missile in the tense waters off the Strait of Hormuz.
The crew had been serving aboard MT Acheloos when the vessel was struck on July 20, 2026, one of several tankers targeted during a spike in maritime violence in the region that summer. Owned by Dynacom Tankers, the Acheloos was among the ships attacked in the corridor where transits had slowed to a trickle amid a U.S.-enforced blockade and repeated Iranian threats to shut the waterway, as reported by USNI News and Lloyd’s List Intelligence.
Getting the workers out of harm’s way fell to the Migrant Workers Office in Muscat, which worked alongside the Philippine Embassy in Oman and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration. The Department of Migrant Workers confirmed the operation in a statement issued Monday.
All 14 were brought off the ship at Shinas Port in Oman, then moved overland to Muscat International Airport on August 9 to begin the journey home. At the terminal, staff from MWO-Muscat and OWWA handed out meals, walked the men through airport procedures, and saw them onto their flights.
Coordination behind the scenes ran through the seafarers’ manning agency and the Acheloos’ local agent in Oman, both of which the Muscat office dealt with directly to arrange the disembarkation and travel.
The group left Muscat on August 9 aboard Qatar Airways flight QR1125, laying over in Doha before boarding QR932 to Manila the following day.
The Acheloos incident was one link in a broader chain of attacks that had gripped the Hormuz region since early July. According to the International Maritime Organization, roughly a dozen ships were hit in and around the strait beginning July 6, leaving two seafarers dead and more than a dozen injured across the various strikes.
