MOSCOW (Reuters) – Hours after a leak was detected on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the Baltic Sea last week, a U.S. Navy reconnaissance aircraft flew about 15 miles from the site where the damage occurred, Reuters reported, citing tracking data it had reviewed.
The report said that a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon aircraft flew from Iceland to Northwestern Poland and then departed to the site of the damaged portion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline several hours after the facility was sabotaged.
The report said the U.S. Navy aircraft was flying over the North Sea toward Poland around the same time when Swedish seismologists detected a subsea blast southeast of Bornholm Island.
After the U.S. Navy aircraft circled once near the site of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline leak, it then headed toward Russia’s Kaliningrad region, the report said.
However, the report noted that some flight data was missing between 03:39 GMT and 06:20 GMT.
The U.S. Navy said the aircraft was conducting a routine maritime reconnaissance flight in the Baltic Sea.
On September 26, sabotage on the Nord Stream pipeline network caused a rapid gas pressure drop and leakage under the Baltic Sea. The operator, Nord Stream AG, said it was impossible to estimate a time frame for repairing the system.
The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has been investigating the pipeline incidents as acts of international terrorism. Meanwhile, Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod has announced that the government intends to deny Russia a role in the probe.