Missing ship may have secret cargo

reply to post by Donny 4 million


destination was North Africa and scheduled arrival was AUG 4..

I don't know the exact port or country.







[edit on 8/16/2009 by JacKatMtn]

reply to post by Donny 4 million


Target was Algeria: www.portarrivals.com...


Btw. Finnish National Bureau of Investigation has given officially statement now in Finnish television.

Official statement in a nutshell:
1. Shipowner has get ransom demands. No amount of money published or date when this was happened.
2. Hijackers are threatening crew members life.
3. Bureau Of Investigation were not confirm Financial Times Deutschland news about 1,5 million dollar ransom.
4. They have some proof that crew and hijackers are still on Arctic Sea.
5. Because of investigation and risk of loosing lives nothing further cannot be said.


This IS Official but is Finnish Police on track or just one piece in big game orchestrate by some direction. Thats the question where is no answer.

I believe in Occam's Razor here, simplest theory is the right one. However, it is "nice" to believe something bigger. But let's see this is pretty weird already.


[edit on 16-8-2009 by northwoods]

reply to post by northwoods


Thanks guys!
The plot thickens!


[edit on 16-8-2009 by Donny 4 million]

Originally posted by Donny 4 million
Does anyone know the port that the Artic Sea was supposed to dock-up at after it left Finnland? A date?
thnks

Hi Donny,
Arctic Sea, left Pietarsaan Finland, just after midnight, early on 22nd July.
Destination: BEJAIA (ALGERIA)
ETA: 2009-08-04 23:00

G

And as Nick Davis a British maritime security expert from Merchant Maritime Warfare Center said: Arctic Sea is probably off Africa's coast, possibly near Sierra Leone or Cameroon.

"If it's a bona fide ransom that's been demanded, that would lead me to believe the vessel is at its safe destination where the hijackers feel they are able to extort money," Davis said. Well this is obvious so if this is true hijack case then Arctic Sea is in safe place already in hijacker's perspective. But is there safe for hijackers since warships are after...

reply to post by thoughtsfull


Hi Thoughtsfull,
Interesting stuff about the chinooks! Nice spot.
The top speed of the Arctic Sea is 10.3 knots, average actual speed at sea is around 9knots.

The vessels AIS transponder signal was tracked all the way from Kaliningrad 17/7, to Pietarsaan 20/7 - 22/7, all the way down through the channel, until the transponder was switched off on 29/7.between Plymouth and Brest (France). It has been reported that French authorities tracked it off the French coast, apparently heading into Bay of Biscay on 30/7 but I haven't been able to confirm this.
The only other verifiable "sighting" that I'm aware of, was the AIS signal re-appearing for 17 minutes on 15/8, heading SSW in Bay of Biscay, about 250 miles due west of La Rochelle France, and about 140 miles north of the Spanish mainland. BUT the French marines have indicated that this signal came from a russian warship group, which was being tracked, heading north from the Med up towards the Baltic Sea. Not from the actual vessel Arctic Sea!
G

Something looks like someone (important, like a government) got caught trying to do something they aught not to be doing and now are scrambling to figure out what to do about it; meanwhile attempting to cover their trail with disinformation.

The ship will have to stop sometime when it runs out of fuel, unless of course said government is able to secretly refuel it with known war ships in the area.

hmmmm - this will be an interesting one to follow.

reply to post by Gordi The Drummer


It was strange that's why I took the pics... I'm a bit of an Aircraft nut (worked in airports all round Europe) so seeing 3 Chinooks shuttle out to sea and then follow the same flight path back, one at a time seemed really weird, both my partner and I stood there and watched them go our to sea then return just saying how weird it was.

I only know I took pics of the middle Chinook at 2pm on the 29th July as that was the date captured by my mobile phone. I live just down the coast from Dover (about 100 miles) so the timing is "ish" for when the Arctic sea was in this vicinity.

There is so much more to this than meets the eye.

BTW do you know what time of day they switched the transponder off just so I can discount the Chinooks? as I know when they flew over and the amount of time they could have spent over the channel..





[edit on 16-8-2009 by thoughtsfull]

reply to post by thoughtsfull


The last AIS signal received (by APRS.fi) on 29/7 was as follows:

2009-07-29 19:06:52z
49 20 27 N 4 36 59 W (approx) Midway between Plymouth and Brest.
9 MPH, bearing 243°

G

P.S. Could the Chinooks have been lifting the crew off??

[edit on 16-8-2009 by Gordi The Drummer]

reply to post by JacKatMtn


Here they reported that the ship wasn't checked for radio active materials but the port was. That happened after the ship had been hijacked. I'm thinking it's just an error or in reporting or something.

reply to post by PsykoOps


Thanks, but that just adds to the mystery doesn't it?

Citing the Finnish Nuclear Agency and quoting the head of the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority?


That's what makes me think it could be disinfo..

That article was sourced from AFP - a French news agency..

another day, and more strange contradicting reports, here's another recent article on the situation and NATO involvement, I think you all have already mentioned this but for the record I wanted to post this:

NATO Joins Russia In Search For Missing Cargo Ship

NATO has joined the Russian Navy search for the missing cargo ship Arctic Sea. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered his navy to find the ship on Wednesday.
The Russian news agency RIA Novosty said NATO and Russia. Russia’s envoy to NATO, Dimitry Rogozin said:
All the exhaustive information, which we do have and which is most likely objective, is instantly reported to the (Russian) naval headquarters.
Speaking of Russian-NATO cooperation, Rogozin added:
As partners, we are currently facing the sole task of sending to the right location and at the right time the forces dispatched by the Russian president.

Some more highlights of this situation in the article..

include discussing the use of subs, warships and satellites to try and find the missing freighter.

the mystery continues..

reply to post by Gordi The Drummer



Thanks for that :-)

Quickly doing some calculations the Arctic Sea would have been off Portsmouth (about 100 miles away) at the time the Chinooks passed over here, which would have been to far for them to travel in the time they took to go out to sea and come back..

Well at least I can discount them.. still another strange occurrence in this bizarre drama

Actually I take that back by this link
www.marinetraffic.com.../29/2009%2012:00:29%20AM

Shows the Arctic sea just off the coast where I am when the first Chinook went past. So it could have only made an additional 10 miles during the time the Chinooks were passing over head here.

I really messed up as I was seeing UTC thinking it was saying BST..and forgot to add the hour..

But it doesn't feel right, and I'm going to discount them, what on earth would Chinooks do to aid the situation?


[edit on 16-8-2009 by thoughtsfull]

reply to post by JacKatMtn


I checked and the report said that the firedepartment was there on the 14th measuring radio activity. Curiously it also said that the results were to be reported directly to Ministry of the Interior. Also the report said that the firedepartment denied this but the video footage shows what appears to be a fire truck and few firemen on the port area. Not sure if they were there to measure radioactivity or what.

reply to post by softlabhennef

I noticed that too yesterday (while I was making a map with the whole recorded journey), it looks like there were two signals from two different positions for the same ship.

reply to post by thoughtsfull


Hmmm...
The RAF Chinooks are based at RAF Odiham in Hampshire (between Basingstoke and Guildford) about 40 miles from Portsmouth.
They have massive lift capabilities, including cargo hooks beneath the main fuselage.
Did they seem to be carrying anything underneath on the return flights?
If not, they can hold 33-55 men (depending on configuration) in the main hold... They could have been used to remove the hidden cargo? or crew?
Hmmm... curiouser and curiouser!!!

reply to post by Gordi The Drummer


Thanks
My dad was merchant marine before ww2. Then life long Navy.I whish he could be here to participate. I just inherited all his old photos of his ships and crews. Maybe I'll post some sometime.
thanks again.

[edit on 16-8-2009 by Donny 4 million]

I've just noticed on marinetraffic.com...
There are currently;
133 ships off Barcelona.
38 ships near Valencia.
55 off Malaga.
165 off Seville / Lisbon
Then... as we travel north (into Bay of Biscay).... None.
Yes folks None. Not one vessel is registering on AIS off the ports of Porto, Santander, La Rochelle, Nantes....etc etc
Then just north of Bay of Biscay...
38 ships on the approach to the English channel,
and 359 actually entering the Channel.
Why the big gap with no vessels? Is this Normal?
Anyone know nore about AIS in this region?
Or has someone "turned off" AIS in the Bay of Biscay just now??

(If there's an AIS black hole in this area.... How did we detect the Arctic Sea transponder there yesterday???)

[edit on 16-8-2009 by Gordi The Drummer]

reply to post by Gordi The Drummer


I think that is normal (although I do not really know anything about it ), that area is not know by their ports, most of the traffic goes to the north European ports.

reply to post by Gordi The Drummer


just remembered when i was training on the south coast of the uk there is a base there that is home to a special breed of perssonnel. if there was a report of possible piracy/boarding in the english channel then these guys would of been put on standby . they have the tools and equipment at there disposal inc large fast response vessels as for the chinooks mentioned . check out the you tube vid. the only way the coastgard would of ignored this report is if advised to do so
www.youtube.com...

reply to post by Gordi The Drummer


Hmmm... The RAF Chinooks are based at RAF Odiham in Hampshire (between Basingstoke and Guildford) about 40 miles from Portsmouth.

I know that is why it was strange to see them in this part of the coast.. why would Chinooks fly across the LGW and LHR flight paths and out to sea here, then return as another flies out to sea and then returns as another flies out to sea.. that's what made it bizarre.

They have massive lift capabilities, including cargo hooks beneath the main fuselage. Did they seem to be carrying anything underneath on the return flights?

no, the photo's I took where of what looked to me like standard types, no noticeable lumps or bumps.

If not, they can hold 33-55 men (depending on configuration) in the main hold... They could have been used to remove the hidden cargo? or crew?

They where out to sea for about 20 minuets and then returned... but given my location that would have put them behind the Arctic Sea.. and given the ship's rough location of about 20 - 30 miles away at the time I would assume that would not leave a lot of time to pick anything up... but they could have dropped stuff off I guess.

Hmmm... curiouser and curiouser!!!

I know, we simply don't see Military aircraft here (except when the Eastbourne Air show is on and then it's straight along the coast into the area and out)