Hunting Somali pirates from the air

Piracy off the Somali coast is estimated to be costing the shipping industry nearly $7bn (£4.4bn).

Along with the growing terrorist threat, it is one of the main reasons David Cameron has convened this week's Somalia conference in London.

Over 100 seafarers and several ships are currently held for ransom in often atrocious conditions.

Frank Gardner has become the first British journalist to be allowed aboard an Australian maritime patrol aircraft, as it flew a counter-piracy mission over the Somali Basin.