The gas is now bubbling into the sea from four leaks. The Baltic Sea pipelines Nord Stream 1 and 2 from Russia to Germany are damaged and experts and politicians have long been talking about only one conceivable cause: sabotage. “All available information indicates that these leaks are the result of a deliberate act,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on behalf of the 27 member states. A big question is now in the room: who sabotaged the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines?
While many Experts | more or fewer pointing clearly to Russia, numerous users claim that the USA is responsible for the alleged sabotage. The presence of American naval units in the Baltic Sea is repeatedly argued, among other things by politicians from the right-wing populist AfD party. Some of the claims have gone viral in recent days.
One of the gas leaks in the Baltic Sea near Bornholm: Much points to sabotage – but by whom?
Claim: “There are coincidences…”, whispers a Telegram user sarcastically and reports on an “American helicopter with the call sign FFAB123” that allegedly flew on September 2 “along the Nord Stream 2 route or even between the points where the accident occurred”. Of the original post by Russian think tank Vatfor’s claims about the US helicopter reached 1.7 million views and also on Twitter this narrative spread. Is a US helicopter actually responsible for the alleged sabotage?
DW fact check: Misleading.
It is still completely unclear who is behind the alleged sabotage of the pipelines. According to our findings, however, the helicopter flight mentioned is out of the question, mainly for geographical reasons: we first looked for the exact position of the gas leaks and found it at the Danish Maritime Authority. among the nautical information and warnings three of the four gas leaks discovered including geo-coordinates can also be found. The fourth gas leak that the Swedish Coast Guard discovered has not yet been publicly located with the exact location.
In a second step, we researched the flight route of the named flight FFAB123 using the Flightaware aviation software. On September 2nd, the flight tracker a flight route near Bornholm that actually corresponds to the image from the social media posts. Flight FFAB123 flew in several loops over the Baltic Sea east of the island of Bornholm. If you now superimpose the geo-coordinates of the gas leaks and flight route on a map, however, a different picture emerges than that claimed in the social media posts.
Three of the four gas leaks discovered have so far been publicly localized by the Danish Maritime Authority: According to our research, they are off the flight path of FFAB123
FFAB123 did not fly along the pipeline and did not even come close to the locations of the gas leaks that have since occurred. In particular, the northern gas leaks are far from FFAB123’s flight path. According to our measurements, the flight path of FFAB123 was nine or 30 kilometers away from the localized gas leaks.
Conclusion: The viral claim by a Russian think tank on Telegram that an American helicopter with the callsign FFAB123 was responsible for the gas leaks is untenable and misleading. The helicopter did not get close to the locations of the gas leaks.
It is still unclear who carried out the alleged sabotage on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines and how, sabotage from the air seems rather unlikely. The German frigate captain and expert for maritime security Göran Swistek rather believes in the attachment of special explosives by underwater vehicles. “I know from my own research that Russia has built up a very strong research program in the underwater world in recent years,” Swistek said ZDF interview. Russia recently tested precisely such unmanned underwater drones in the North Sea and North Atlantic, among other places, near important communication cables.
