Finland refuses Eagle S permission to operate, citing major safety issues
The oil tanker is suspected of deliberately damaging undersea cables in the Gulf of Finland on Christmas Day.
The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom has reported finding serious safety issues on the Eagle S tanker after the completion of a port state control (PSC) inspection.
Finnish authorities suspect the vessel was involved in the deliberate damaging of undersea cables in the Gulf of Finland on Christmas Day.
In a statement on Wednesday, Traficom said it has detained the Eagle S due to safety concerns and that it will not be permitted to operate until the issues are resolved.
The statement added that the agency's inspectors found a total of 32 deficiencies during the tanker's port inspection, three of which were serious enough to warrant the detention order.
The deficiencies were related to the vessel's fire safety, its navigational equipment as well as the ventilation of its pump room.
"Traficom has detained the Eagle S vessel based on the findings of the port inspection. The vessel has such serious deficiencies that it is not allowed to operate on it until the deficiencies are fixed. Correcting the deficiencies will require external repair assistance and will take time," Traficom's Maritime Director Sanna Sonninen said.
Traficom also noted problems with the crew's living quarters, the electrical safety of the vessel, as well as its general maintenance.
The agency also noted that, while the vessel does not pose any environmental risks at the moment, it is not built to withstand severe winter conditions and therefore could pose further problems if weather conditions deteriorate.
The findings of the latest inspection are in line with a previous PSC, carried out in the autumn of 2023 at the Port of Tema in Ghana, which found 24 safety shortcomings and led to the tanker's detention.
When a vessel is detained, it means that authorities prohibit it from leaving port until the serious safety flaws have been rectified.
"Good it was detained"
Ulla Tapaninen, a Professor of Maritime Transport at Tallinn University of Technology, told Yle that the deficiencies on the Eagle S as identified by Traficom "sound significant".
"It's good that it was detained," Tapaninen said. "It sounds like the ship is in poor condition, and it hasn't been taken care of very well. There has been good reason to detain the ship."
The inspection carried out by authorities in Ghana revealed a multitude of problems with the Eagle S, including issues related to the maintenance of the ship and its equipment, the emergency fire pump, fire alarm system, and emergency power supply.
Maritime expert Markku Mylly told Yle that he had never seen such a large number of deficiencies as those identified on the Eagle S, noting that typically the amount ranges from two to five.
"When we're talking about more than 20, that's truly a lot. There are many rusty old ships sailing around, but I don't remember seeing these many issues raised," Mylly said.
Finland's National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) suspects eight Eagle S crew members of offences including aggravated sabotage and aggravated interference of telecommunications in relation to the cable damage.
An anchor belonging to the Eagle S was located and retrieved from the seabed earlier this week, in an operation involving the Swedish Armed Forces' multipurpose vessel HMS Belos. A 100km-long trail was found carved into the seabed in the anchor's wake.
Finnish authorities have since taken possession of the anchor, and the NBI began analysing it on Tuesday.
The oil tanker is suspected of deliberately damaging undersea cables in the Gulf of Finland on Christmas Day.
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