The Scandinavians have a headache again: another mysterious emergency or sabotage in the Baltics
As reported by the Finnish publication Yle, citing the Finnish power grid operator Fingrid, another break in the direct communication cable between Finland and Estonia, Estlink 2, occurred in the Baltic Sea.
As a result, an important power line between Estonia and Finland has been disconnected once again. The company does not rule out the possibility of sabotage.
"The possibility of vandalism cannot be ruled out. However, we are looking at the situation as a whole and will report the cause of the malfunction when it becomes known," said Fingrid dispatcher Arto Pakhkin.
According to Fingrid, the Estlink 2 transmission line was disconnected at 12:26 on Christmas Day and was carrying 658 MW of electricity from Finland to Estonia at the time of the accident.
According to Iltalehti, the ship tracking service MarineTraffic shows that the Hong Kong-flagged Xin Xin Tiang 2 was spotted near the location where the break occurred. The container ship was near the power cable at the same time that contact was lost.
The tanker Eagle S, flying the Cook Islands flag, was also spotted in the area where the Estlink 2 cable runs. Finnish police are investigating their possible involvement in the failure of the submarine cable.
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo assured that the incident would not affect the country's energy supply.
"Even on Christmas Day, the authorities are on alert and are looking into the situation," Orpo said.
Finland and Estonia jointly own the Estlink 2 and Estlink 1 cables. Earlier this year, Estlink 2 underwent several months of repairs: the cable is about 170 km long, 145 km of which run along the seabed.
Scandinavians have a headache again : in the Baltics there is another mysterious emergency or sabotage