Finland Detains Tanker Suspected Of Cable Damage After Finding Serious Maintenance Issues

The transport ministry of Finland completed the port state inspection of the tanker Eagle S which is suspected of damaging 5 Baltic Sea cables using its anchor on the day of Christmas.

The agency detained the ship after finding severe deficiencies and prevented it from leaving until the issues were rectified.

The tanker was detained by Finnish Police on December 25 and 26, was taken into custody and moved to anchorage for investigation purposes.

In the inspection which continued for a week, Traficom revealed 32 deficiencies that aligned with earlier reports regarding the ship’s poor condition. An examination last year had found dozens of problems and per Lloyd’s List, the tanker’s last 2 port state control inspections identified around 3 dozen more.

Traficom stated that it has detained the tanker for serious issues related to fire safety, ventilation of the pump room, navigation equipment, electrical safety and general maintenance.

It has such issues that it cannot be allowed to sail until the problems are fixed which would require extensive repairs and take time, said Sanna Sonninen, Finland’s Director of Maritime Affairs.

Finnish police have found strong evidence which indicates that the tanker broke the cables. Its AIS track lined up with the time and place of the cable outages and it was also missing an anchor when authorities boarded it.

The heavily damaged anchor was then recovered from the seabed, close to the end of a 50-mile-long track. A dive inspection also revealed that its hull had patches of missing paint close to the bow, a possible sign of recent anchor chain contact.

Maritime Security Experts suggest it is unlikely that the damage to cables was an accident and turned their suspicions to Russia since the tanker is a part of the Dark fleet of tankers and was the third ship in 15 months, suspected of damaging a subsea cable while headed to or from a Russian port.

Also, European counterintelligence agencies have been dealing with Russian-backed arson and sabotage operations across the European Union for over a year.

Finnish security services garnered praise for their swift action in detaining the tanker. Unlike the last two such incidents, this time, the suspected ship was seized before it could leave, though it was operating in international waters.

Authorities in Finland said that the crew of the tanker changed their course towards Finland when requested during which a boarding operation by Finnish armed forces and police team was carried out.

References: Subtelforum

Source: Maritime Shipping News