WIRED magazine published a report yesterday on a new analysis yesterday that showed that there were two “dark” ships—meaning their automatic identification system (AIS) trackers were turned off—in the vicinity of the Nord Stream pipelines just before the explosions that tore them apart in September. According to the analysis by satellite data monitoring firm SpaceKnow, the two “dark ships,” each measuring around 95 to 130 meters long, passed within several miles of the Nord Stream 2 leak sites. “We have detected some dark ships, meaning vessels that were of a significant size, that were passing through that area of interest,” Jerry Javornicky, the CEO and cofounder of SpaceKnow, told WIRED. “They had their beacons off, meaning there was no information about their movement, and they were trying to keep their location information and general information hidden from the world,” Javornicky adds.
The discovery, which was made by analyzing images from multiple satellites, including satellites using synthetic aperture radar (SAR), is likely to further increase speculation about the cause of the blasts, says WIRED. Once SpaceKnow identified the ships, it reported its findings to officials at NATO, who are investigating the Nord Stream incidents. Javornicky says NATO officials asked the company to provide more information. There is no indication in the WIRED article as to whether or not the new data was shared with the Russians. Javornicky says the company is not in the business of determining what may have happened or who is responsible but instead provided the data to authorities.
https://www.wired.com/story/nord-stream-pipeline-explosion-dark-ships/
