Crew of Eagle S tanker planned to damage more cables in Baltic Sea
Illustrative photo: The crew of the Eagle S tanker planned to damage more cables in the Baltic Sea (marinetraffic.com)
The crew of the Eagle S oil tanker, suspected of sabotaging underwater cables in the Baltic Sea, planned to damage other cables and pipelines. This did not happen because the vessel was detained, Reuters reports.
As the head of the investigation, Risto Lohi, explained, the vessel threatened to damage another energy cable, Estlink 1, as well as the BalticConnector gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia at the time of its detention.
"There would have been an almost immediate danger that other cables or pipes related to our critical underwater infrastructure could have been damaged," Lohi said.
According to him, a ninth crew member was added to the list of suspects and banned from leaving the country. Finland also reported that eight out of 24 crew members are subject to an exit ban. The captain of the vessel is a Georgian citizen, and the crew consists of citizens from India and Georgia.
Cable break in the Baltic Sea
At the end of last year, underwater communication cables between Finland and Estonia were damaged in the Baltic Sea. Following this, Finland detained the Eagle S vessel, likely a tanker from Russia's shadow fleet, which was passing through the area where the cables were severed.
Recently, it became known that Finland suspects seven crew members of the vessel of vandalism under aggravating circumstances. They have been banned from leaving the country.
