Eagle S captain speaks to Finnish daily amid probe into Estlink cable damage
Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat spoke briefly by phone on Thursday with the captain of the Eagle S, the vessel whose movements are suspected of causing the Christmas Day damage to undersea cables connecting Finland and Estonia.
The Eagle S is currently moored off the coastal city of Porvoo/Borgå.
Davit Vadattškoria, the ship's captain, is a Georgian citizen.
He told Helsingin Sanomat both that he is indeed the captain and that the crew, impounded with the ship on Finnish territory following the incident last week, are all doing fine.
He said: "We are currently occupied with the investigation."
"Port state investigators are on board now," Vadattškoria went on, and directed further inquiries to his employer, without specifying which company he meant.
As to whether the Eagle S's trailing anchor could have caused the damage to the cables, Vadattškoria replied this would come: "Later, later. All the questions will be answered later. The investigation is ongoing, and I am not authorized to discuss anything with third parties, until it is concluded."
Beyond this, this was "an ordinary maritime incident. Nothing more, nothing less. We are cooperating well with the [Finnish] police," he added, noting that all is well with the ship's crew, which includes other non-Russian foreign nationals, as well.
Beyond Vadattškoria's own statements, Finland's transport and communications agency Traficom is conducting an in-port inspection of the vessel, which began on Thursday.
"The inspection will take longer than one day," Sanna Sonninen, Traficom's maritime director, said.
The incident under investigation involves the suspected damage to the Estlink 2 electricity transmission cable between Finland and Estonia, along with several communication cables, reportedly caused by the Eagle S's anchor on Christmas Day.
The incident followed damage to the Balticconnector gas pipeline, which also runs under the sea between Finland and Estonia, in October 2023, and damage to communications cables at around the same time, caused by the trailing anchor of a Hong Kong-flagged vessel.
--
Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!
Editor: Karl Kivil, Andrew Whyte
Source: Helsingin Sanomat