The Hydrographer of Pakistan issued NAVAREA IX 427/26 at 031500 UTC on 3 November as a Red Sea / Saudi Arabia seaplane-landing warning. The official text, retrieved from the National Hydrographic Office product file 20261103SEC 427.txt, puts a seaplane landing and operational zone in a four-corner box off Shura Island. The only chart cited is BA Chart 159. Mariners are cautioned. The notice prints no cancel time, no daily window, no VHF working channel and no numeric berth. That is the working primary. It is a standing Red Sea seaplane-zone product. It is not a rewrite of Sunday night’s dedicated 425/26 Selat Storm wreck, not a Pakistan firing-box rewrite of Monday afternoon’s dedicated 424/26, and not last night’s dedicated Warning 194-26 or 195-26.
Pakistan’s NAVAREA IX in-force table, as of Wednesday 4 November, lists 427/26 as the second row, DTG 031500 UTC 3 November, region Red Sea Saudi Arabia, Shura Island, description seaplane landing. The same Wednesday table carries 428/26 as the first row, DTG 031500 UTC 3 November, region Red Sea Saudi Arabia, Amaala Triple Bay, description seaplane landing — same-board wrap on this file, unused as a dedicated piece. 426/26 remains listed as live weapon firing, DTG 021720 UTC 2 November, even though that notice self-cancelled at 030800 UTC 3 November; that is a stale listing, not a rewrite. 425/26 remains Sunday night’s dedicated Selat Storm wreck. 424/26 remains Monday afternoon’s dedicated 3–4 November firing box, still in force on this morning’s table through its printed 040700 UTC 4 November cancel. Masters who brief Wednesday morning as a Hormuz Attack, as a Jeddah port closure, or as a second 424/26 box will have merged a Red Sea seaplane polygon into a north-Arabian-Sea firing product.
What the warning actually printed
The hydrographic text is short and is the working primary. DTG 031500 UTC NOV 2026. NAVAREA IX 427/26. RED SEA. SAUDI ARABIA (SHURA ISLAND). BA CHART 159. SEAPLANE LANDING AND OPERATIONAL ZONE ESTABLISHED IN FOLLOW AREA BOUNDED BY FOLLOWING: 25-29.82N 036-57.18E, 25-29.32N 036-58.20E, 25-29.08N 036-58.07E, 25-29.60N 036-57.05E. MARINERS CAUTIONED. Stay with that wording. The coordinator printed “FOLLOW AREA BOUNDED BY FOLLOWING” on the official file; do not silently tidy it into “FOLLOWING AREA.” The coordinator printed neither a unit name, an aircraft type, a runway heading, a daily operating window, a cancel time, a no-go inside the polygon, a VHF working channel, a numeric berth, a security radius, a strike, a projectile nor an attacker. Stay with the four corners, BA Chart 159, Shura Island, and mariners cautioned.
The geometry is one coastal polygon, not a TSS change and not a port-approach box. The four corners sit between about 25-29.08N and 25-29.82N, 036-57.05E and 036-58.20E — a compact box on the order of one nautical mile on a side, on BA 159 water off Shura Island on the Saudi Red Sea coast. That is well south of the companion Amaala Triple Bay box on 428/26, whose four corners sit between about 26-36.32N and 26-38.92N, 036-12.53E and 036-14.95E, on the same BA 159 sheet and the same 031500 UTC stamp. 427/26 does not reprint Amaala. 428/26 does not reprint Shura. Do not brief 427/26 as a second Amaala box. Do not brief the pair as one merged Red Sea exclusion zone. The coordinator printed two numbered cautions, two place-names, and two four-corner lists.
The clock is the second briefing fact. 427/26 carries a 031500 UTC 3 November issue time and no cancel line. Dedicated 424/26 fires 0300–0600 UTC on 3 and 4 November and kills itself at 040700 UTC 4 November — about three and a half hours after this Wednesday 0330 UTC desk, and on Arabian Sea / Pakistan water, not on BA 159. Dedicated 414/26 remains the month-long 24-north four-box product through 302000 UTC 30 November. 427/26 does not borrow those clocks. A passage plan that treats 25-29.82N 036-57.18E as a two-morning watch because 424/26 cancels this morning has over-read a standing seaplane zone onto a Pakistan firing product. A passage plan that drops 427/26 at 040700 UTC because 424/26 dies then has deleted a Red Sea box the coordinator has not cancelled.
Same-board wrap, not this berth: 428/26, 031500 UTC 3 November, RED SEA SAUDI ARABIA (AMAALA TRIPLE BAY), BA CHART 159, SEAPLANE LANDING AND OPERATIONAL ZONE ESTABLISHED IN FOLLOWING AREA: 26-38.92N 036-13.32E / 26-36.80N 036-14.95E / 26-36.32N 036-14.15E / 26-38.40N 036-12.53E, mariners cautioned. Official file 20261103SEC 428.txt. Unused as dedicated. 426/26 remains wrap on Sunday night’s 425/26 and is self-cancelled at 030800 UTC 3 November — unused as dedicated; the Wednesday NHO row is a stale listing, not a live 3 November shoot. 425/26 remains Sunday night’s dedicated Selat Storm wreck at 26-22.55N 056-20.47E. 424/26 remains Monday afternoon’s dedicated 3–4 November firing box through 040700 UTC 4 November. 423/26 remains the 310300 UTC 31 October in-force catalogue. 420/26 remains Friday night’s dedicated RITI fire-and-anchor at 26-24.07N 056-24.72E. 417/26 remains Friday morning’s dedicated MSV Quba wreck at 26-19.95N 056-16.82E. 416/26, possible pirate-action-group at 12-42N 047-35E, printed a 032359 UTC 3 November cancel and is still listed on this morning’s NHO table — a stale listing, not a rewrite and not a second Aden PAG piece. 414/26 remains Wednesday night’s dedicated November four-box product through 302000 UTC 30 November. 411/26 remains the dedicated McDermott DB30 pipelay berth off Qatar through 26 November. 286/26 remains the in-force Jeddah Islamic Port restricted-area line, DTG 171500 UTC 17 August, unused as a rewrite. Those clocks are separate.
What this is not
This is not a rewrite of 428/26. 428/26 is the Amaala Triple Bay companion, same DTG, same BA 159 sheet, different four corners and a different place-name. It is wrap on this file. A passage plan that only plots Shura has not plotted 26-38.92N 036-13.32E. A passage plan that treats the two boxes as one “Red Sea seaplane zone” has merged two numbered cautions.
This is not a rewrite of 424/26 or 414/26. Monday afternoon’s dedicated 424/26 remains one 25N Arabian Sea / Pakistan polygon, 0300–0600 UTC on 3 and 4 November, charts PAK 57 (INT 751), BA 38, 39 and BA 707, cancel 040700 UTC 4 November. Wednesday night’s dedicated 414/26 remains four areas around 24N, 0300–1900 UTC on 2–6 / 9–13 / 16–20 / 23–27 / 30 November, cancel 302000 UTC 30 November. 427/26 adds BA 159, drops the Pakistan charts, uses a Red Sea seaplane polygon around 25-29N 036-57E rather than a Makran firing box, prints no daily window and prints no cancel. A passage plan that replaces 424/26 with 427/26 has dropped a 4 November morning shoot that is still live for a few hours. A passage plan that files 427/26 under “Pakistan firing” has put a Shura Island seaplane box on the wrong coast.
This is not a security-incident NAVAREA and not a wreck product. 425/26 remains the dedicated Selat Storm wreck. 420/26 remains the dedicated RITI fire-and-anchor. 417/26 remains the dedicated Quba wreck. 389/26, the Gulf of Oman oil-tanker security-incident caution on the dedicated Petro Dolphin / two-missing Sohar file, remains in force. 352/26 remains a Strait of Hormuz oil-tanker security-incident caution. 427/26 does not restore cancelled Hormuz wreck cautions, does not survey them, and does not sit in the Musandam or Sohar offsets.
This is not last night’s dedicated Warning 195-26, not last night’s dedicated Warning 194-26, and not this morning’s companion IMO 128-count. Last night’s 195-26 remains an unnamed tanker Attack 14 nautical miles northeast of Lima. Last night’s 194-26 remains an unnamed Indian-crewed dhow Attack outbound through Hormuz. The IMO highlighted-incidents board, treated in today’s companion piece, is a Middle East confirmed-incident table; 427/26 names no tanker from that board. This is not Update 110 and not Update 111. Update 110 remains the last numbered public periodic note, ICOD 011300 UTC 1 November. This is not Tuesday morning’s dedicated NAVWARN 784/26 Ahtopol tank, and it is not Thursday’s dedicated Contship Jet or Khoryv wrecks.
This is not a Jeddah, Yanbu, Duba or Amaala port closure, not a Bab el-Mandeb TSS change, and not a rewrite of 286/26. 286/26 remains the in-force Jeddah Islamic Port restricted-area line. 254/26 remains the Yanbu commercial-port dredging line. Those remain their own in-force rows. 427/26 does not close the Red Sea coastal route, does not reopen Hormuz, and does not cancel 414/26, 424/26 or 411/26. It is not a Houthi merchant-attack product. JMIC Update 110 still prints the last confirmed Houthi merchant attack as 24 August. 427/26 prints a seaplane landing and operational zone, mariners cautioned — not a strike, not a projectile, and not a keep-clear radius.
Operational implications
For a master running the Saudi Red Sea coast on BA 159 between Al Wajh, Umm Lajj, Amaala and the Shura Island approaches, 427/26 is a passage-plan amendment before it is an aviation story. The four corners sit in a compact box about one nautical mile on a side. The notice does not print a vertical limit, a lighting scheme, a VHF working channel, a named guard ship, or a numeric berth. Mariners cautioned is the whole instruction. A passage plan that treats 25-29.82N 036-57.18E as a charted obstruction after a later cancel that has not been issued has over-read a standing zone. A passage plan that only annotates “seaplanes, Shura Island” without the four corners has under-read a numbered NAVAREA that exists to be plotted.
428/26 is the second Red Sea problem on the same stamp. Amaala Triple Bay sits on the order of 70 nautical miles north-northwest of the Shura box, still on BA 159. Hulls on a northbound coastal track past Duba and Amaala need both polygons. Hulls that only work the Shura / Umm Lajj stretch still need 427/26 and can leave 428/26 as a plotted caution rather than a dedicated rewrite. Do not assume the Amaala box is idle because the ship is “only going to Yanbu.” Do not assume the Shura box is idle because the fixture is an Amaala call. The coordinator issued two numbers.
For DPAs with Jeddah, Yanbu, Duba, Amaala, Suez-to-Bab el-Mandeb, or Red Sea coastal stems this week, the operational question is whether the planned track clips either four-corner list, not whether Saudi Arabia “closed the Red Sea.” 427/26 does not close Jeddah. It does not close Yanbu. It does not reopen Hormuz. It does not cancel 286/26, 414/26, 424/26 or 411/26. A fixture that only budgeted Sunday night’s Hormuz wreck, Monday afternoon’s Pakistan firing box, or last night’s Lima Attacks has not budgeted a standing Shura Island seaplane caution. 424/26 still has until 040700 UTC 4 November on the north Arabian Sea; that is a firing watch, not this seaplane box. 414/26 remains the November four-box product through 30 November. 411/26 remains the Qatar pipelay berth through 26 November. Those clocks are separate.
The stale rows on this morning’s NHO table are a second briefing trap. 426/26 is still printed as live weapon firing. That notice self-cancelled at 030800 UTC 3 November. 416/26 is still printed as a possible pirate-action-group off Somalia. That notice printed a 032359 UTC 3 November cancel. Do not restore either product because the Wednesday table still lists them. Do not treat 427/26 as the replacement for either cancel. The new work is the Shura box and, as wrap, the Amaala box. Everything else on the Wednesday table is either a dedicated earlier file or housekeeping.
Do not recast 4 November as a Red Sea exclusion zone inside the four corners, a named-aircraft casualty, a rewrite of 286/26, a rewrite of 424/26, or a Hormuz product. The confirmed facts are NAVAREA IX 427/26, 031500 UTC 3 November, Shura Island, BA Chart 159, four corners, mariners cautioned, no printed cancel, with 428/26 the same-stamp Amaala wrap and dedicated 424/26 still in force on the same Wednesday table until 040700 UTC.
What Operators Should Note
- Log 427/26 as a standing Shura Island seaplane zone, not as a firing box and not as a port closure. NAVAREA IX 427/26, 031500 UTC 3 November. Red Sea / Saudi Arabia (Shura Island). BA Chart 159. Seaplane landing and operational zone established in follow area bounded by following: 25-29.82N 036-57.18E / 25-29.32N 036-58.20E / 25-29.08N 036-58.07E / 25-29.60N 036-57.05E. Mariners cautioned. Official file
20261103SEC 427.txt. No cancel time. This is not 424/26, not 414/26, not 195-26, not Update 110, and not a Jeddah closure. - Plot one compact 25-29N polygon, not a merged Red Sea box. The four corners sit about one nautical mile on a side off Shura Island on BA 159. 428/26 is the Amaala Triple Bay companion on the same stamp: 26-38.92N 036-13.32E / 26-36.80N 036-14.95E / 26-36.32N 036-14.15E / 26-38.40N 036-12.53E, mariners cautioned, official file
20261103SEC 428.txt, unused as dedicated. Do not merge the two boxes. Do not invent a VHF working channel, a numeric berth, an aircraft type or a daily window on either notice. - Carry no printed cancel, and do not borrow 424/26’s 040700 UTC 4 November kill. 427/26 is in force from 031500 UTC 3 November until a later NAVAREA cancels or amends it. Dedicated 424/26 still cancels at 040700 UTC 4 November on Arabian Sea / Pakistan water. Dedicated 414/26 remains through 302000 UTC 30 November. 427/26 does not cancel those products and does not inherit their clocks.
- Keep the stale NHO rows off the live folder. 426/26 self-cancelled at 030800 UTC 3 November; the Wednesday listing is stale, not a live shoot. 416/26 printed a 032359 UTC 3 November cancel; the Wednesday listing is stale, not a second Aden PAG piece. Do not restore either number because they still appear on the 4 November table.
- Keep the Hormuz wrecks, the Pakistan boxes and the Qatar berth on their own files. 425/26 remains dedicated Selat Storm at 26-22.55N 056-20.47E. 420/26 remains dedicated RITI at 26-24.07N 056-24.72E. 417/26 remains dedicated Quba at 26-19.95N 056-16.82E. 424/26 remains the 3–4 November 25N firing box through 040700 UTC 4 November. 414/26 remains the November four-box product. 411/26 remains the DB30 pipelay berth through 26 November. 389/26 Petro Dolphin and 352/26 remain in-force security-incident cautions. 423/26 remains the 31 October in-force list. 286/26 remains the Jeddah restricted-area line.
- Jeddah, Yanbu, Duba, Amaala and Hormuz are not closed by this notice. Red Sea coastal traffic past Shura Island now carries a standing four-corner seaplane caution on BA 159, with the Amaala Triple Bay companion as wrap. Watch a later NAVAREA that extends, cancels, buoys or times 427/26 — not a completed landing, not a named-aircraft casualty, and not a Hormuz rewrite.
Regulas Shipping will keep lining NAVAREA IX 427/26 against the same-stamp Amaala wrap on 428/26 and against Monday afternoon’s dedicated 424/26 firing box so operators can treat the Shura Island seaplane polygon as a standing BA 159 caution, not as a port closure, a Pakistan shoot or a security wreck.
