The crew on the dark fleet tanker suspected of Baltic Sea sabotage reportedly had plans to cut more cables and pipelines when Finnish authorities boarded it on 26 December.
Risto Lohi of the National Bureau of Investigation told Reuters the vessel was threatening to cut a second power cable, Estlink1 — the backup for Estlink 2 — and the Balticconnector gas pipe between Finland and Estonia at the time it was seized.
“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.
These subsea links are important for energy security in the Baltic states, which are weaning their grids off reliance on Russian electrical power.
The 74,000-dwt Eagle S (built 2006) was accused of deliberately using its anchor while underway to sever an electricity cable feeding power from Finland to Estonia, shortly after leaving Russia with a cargo of oil on 25 December.
Finnish authorities suspect that the vessel damaged the Finnish-Estonian Estlink 2 power line and four telecom cables by dragging its anchor across the seabed for more than 100 km (62 miles).
The Eagle S has been detained by the Finnish authorities and travel bans have been imposed on eight of the crew.
Travel ban on ninth crew member
Lohi said a ninth crew member has been added to a list of those being treated as suspects and barred from travelling.
The captain of the ship is Georgian and the crew are citizens of India and Georgia, according to the Reuters report.
“We have heard and interrogated the crew, and at the moment we have nine crew members as suspects. They are under travel bans related to this to secure the investigation,” Lohi said.
“Naturally, our priority [is] the individuals whose tasks or responsibilities include the navigation of the ship and the operations related to the anchors.”
The Eagle S incident echoes an earlier incident in which a Chinese bulker was suspected of damaging two international underwater telecom cables in the Baltic Sea.
On 20 November, the 75,100-dwt Yi Peng 3 (built 2001) was accused of dragging its anchor to breach two undersea fibre-optic communications cables.
The first internet cable ran between Santahamina in Finland and the German city of Rostock. The second connected Lithuania with the Swedish island of Gotland.
Power cable, telecom link and gas pipeline outages have been on the rise in Baltic Sea nations since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
After three subsea cable damage incidents in little more than a year, Nato has agreed to take action to protect its members, including its two newest states.
Sweden, which joined Nato last year, following Finland, now plans to contribute three naval vessels for subsea security operations in the Baltic.
The warships, under Nato control, will monitor traffic and subsea cable integrity.
In response to the outages, the Baltic Sea Nato Allies Summit will be held on 14 January in Helsinki.
