US Navy jet flew near Nord Stream 2 pipeline hours after rupture

A US Navy reconnaissance aircraft flew near the site of sabotaged Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the Baltic Sea hours after the first rupture was detected at the site, according to tracking data cited in press reports.

Flight data showed an American P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol and reconnaissance plane was flying over the North Sea at 0003 GMT when Swedish seismologists registered what they later described as a subsea blast southeast of Bornholm Island in the Baltic Sea, Reuters reported Friday.

Sabotage on the Nord Stream pipeline network on September 26 caused a rapid gas pressure drop and leakage under the Baltic Sea off the coast of Denmark and Sweden. Seismologists registered explosions in the area and police in several countries have reportedly launched probes into the incident.

The Russian Prosecutor General's Office has also launched an investigation into the pipeline blast as acts of international terrorism. Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod, however, has announced that his government intends to deny Russia a role in the probe, Moscow-based Sputnik News reported Saturday.

The identity of the reconnaissance plane could not immediately be established because of the type of rotating identification code sometimes used by such planes, but the US Navy confirmed it was an American aircraft when presented with tracking data reviewed by Reuters.

"The US Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft shown in the tracking data conducted a routine Baltic Sea maritime reconnaissance flight, unrelated to the leaks from the Nord Stream pipelines," said a US Navy spokesperson as quoted in the report.

Asked if any of the intelligence gathered might help investigators looking into the pipeline ruptures, US Naval Forces Europe-Africa spokesperson, Capt. Tamara Lawrence claimed, "We do not have any additional information to provide at this time."

The report then noted that it remains unclear what role, if any, the US military is playing to aid European investigations into the ruptures of the pipelines.

This is while Sweden's domestic security agency pointed out earlier in the week that its preliminary investigation into leaks from two Russian gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea confirmed they were caused by "detonations,'' and that the findings have "strengthened the suspicions of serious sabotage.”

The remarks came amid growing suspicions that US was behind the sabotage against the pipelines amid reports that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed pleasure over the incident, hailing it as a “tremendous opportunity” to repel European Union states from Russian energy resources amid the upcoming winter cold.

Top US diplomat welcomes Nord Stream sabotage as ‘tremendous opportunity’

Top US diplomat expresses delight over the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines, hailing it as a “tremendous opportunity” to break EU

Boasting on Friday that the US is now “the leading supplier of [liquefied natural gas (LNG)] to Europe,” Blinken said that in addition to shipping its own fuel to Europe, the US is working with European leaders to find ways to “decrease demand” and “speed up the transition to renewables."

“It’s a tremendous opportunity to once and for all remove the dependence on Russian energy and thus to take away from [Russian President] Vladimir Putin the weaponization of energy as a means of advancing his imperial designs,” the US diplomat went on to claim.

With winter approaching, Blinken also stressed that Washington wants the EU member nations to use less fuel as the US has been trying for years to convince EU leaders to swap Russian gas for its LNG.

Meanwhile, the tracking data also reveals that the US Navy plane flew south of Bornholm heading to northwestern Poland several minutes past 0100 GMT before circling for about an hour above land and flying at around 0244 GMT to the area where the Nord Stream gas leak was reported.

It came as close as some 24 kilometers to the reported leak site, circled once and flew towards the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, a frequent focus for surveillance, the Reuters report added, citing analyst.

It further noted, however, that there is flight data missing between 0339 GMT and 0620 GMT, and that on its way back -- around 0700 GMT -- the US aircraft flew nearly 4 kilometers north of the reported leak site.

Reuters explained that it used a partial flight map from US-based tracking website Radarbox, complemented by data provided by Sweden-based Flightradar24 to reconstruct the P-8's path.

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