site.btaUPDATED Navibulgar CEO Comments on Vezhen Ship Detained by Swedish Authorities

Navigation Maritime Bulgare (Navibulgar) CEO Alexander Kalchev said that it is possible that the Vezhen ship caused a cable between Gotland and Latvia to break but dismissed any possibility of sabotage or any other action on the part of the crew.

The reason for his statement was information from the Swedish Prosecution Authority of a preliminary investigation on suspicion of sabotage, after the detention of a ship in the Baltic Sea, suspected of damaging an underwater fibre optic cable connecting Latvia and the Swedish island of Gotland.

Kalchev explained that according to the information they have from the vessel, the ship was sailing on the evening of January 25 in extremely bad weather. In the morning, the crew discovered that the left anchor was apparently being dragged along the bottom.

The Navibulgar CEO added that the automatic ship identification system clearly shows that the Vezhen actually passed over the cable in question, but it is not clear when exactly it was cut. He went on to say that the ship's movement should be recorded from the moment of the cut (0:45 UTC or 2:45 Bulgarian time) to confirm that this ship was at fault. Kalchev reiterated that he does not believe that anyone on board would intentionally do this.

Kalchev said that the ship's officer corps consist of eight Bulgarians, and nine Myanmar citizens as executive personnel.

On Sunday, the ship was approached by the Swedish coast guard and asked to head towards their territorial waters, to undergo an inspection to establish whether it is the perpetrator. "I hope that the investigators will quickly establish that this is not a matter of any intentional actions, but a technical incident due to bad weather, and that the ship will be released," said Kalchev. He specified that the vessel is currently at anchor in Swedish territorial waters and information is pending on when the investigating authorities will board.

In response to a question, Kalchev said that there is information from the media about another vessel that was in the area at the time of the incident.

The Vezhen ship was sailing to South America, loaded with fertilizers. The 32,000-tonne vessel is new, from 2022. The captain of the ship is Anton Atanasov, 41 years old, Kalchev also said.