US Navy jet flew Baltic after Nord Stream burst

• A U.S. Navy plane flew near where the Nord Stream 2 pipeline broke in the Baltic Sea.
• The flight, which Washington said was normal, was not tracked.
• Seismologists heard explosions in the area, and police in a number of countries have started looking into what happened.

U.S. Navy reconnaissance plane flew near where the Nord Stream 2 pipeline broke in the Baltic Sea a few hours after the first signs of damage. The flight, which Washington said was normal, was not tracked.

The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines from Russia broke on September 26, letting gas flow into the Baltic Sea near Denmark and Sweden. Seismologists heard explosions in the area, and police in a number of countries have started looking into what happened.

Flight data showed that a P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol and reconnaissance plane was over the North Sea at 00:03 GMT when Swedish seismologists picked up what they later said was a subsea blast southeast of Bornholm Island in the Baltic Sea.

Data showed that the plane, which had taken off from Iceland, flew in a pattern that looked like a racetrack over Poland before taking off toward the Baltic pipeline area.

Because these types of planes sometimes use a code that changes, it was hard to figure out who owned the plane right away. However, when Reuters showed them the information, the U.S. Navy confirmed that it was an American plane.

“The U.S. 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,” a U.S. Navy spokesperson said.

Capt. Tamara Lawrence, a spokesperson for the U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa, said, “At this time, we do not have any more information to share.” She was asked if any of the information gathered could help investigators look into the pipeline breaks.

It’s not clear what, if any, role the U.S. military is playing in helping Europeans look into the broken pipelines, but President Joe Biden has talked about sending down divers in the future.

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