The extreme diver and safety expert Achim Schloeffel has with the “Time‘ about the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines. Many suspect that a state must be behind the suspected saboteurs group – after all, such an operation is very complicated.
Schloeffel sees it differently. “I would have accepted the job immediately because I would have thought: nothing easier than that,” he told Die Zeit. Attaching a bomb to the pipeline is also not a problem. “My 80-year-old mother could also plant the bomb if she were there,” Schloeffel continued.
Nord Stream sabotage: “It doesn’t have to have been professionals”
“They don’t have to be professionals. Those who learn technical diving with us go through three courses, levels one, two and three. Even those who have completed the second level could reach the pipeline,” explains the diver. “An experienced holiday diver might need a year for the courses. If you have nothing else to do, you can do it in three months.”
Schloeffel also explains to the “Zeit” how he would have proceeded in the event of a planned sabotage. “I would have done something similar to what they did: register a civilian boat, get a handful of good friends and a nautical chart. Pipelines are marked on it so that boats don’t accidentally anchor there or fishermen don’t cast their nets there,” says Schloeffel.
Diver tells how he would sabotage the pipelines
“A reasonable echo sounder is important for precise positioning. Then I would take a lead weight over the pipeline, a line and attach a small buoy to the top. Then I would throw it all away. The divers could get ready during this time, which takes around twenty minutes. They would then follow the line down,” says the “Zeit” diver, describing his hypothetical plan.
Schloeffel continues: “When they get to the bottom, they can place the explosive charges on the pipeline. When they’re done, they let a buoy up with a line, almost any diver can do it. Then they go up gently, drifting deep in the water with the current on their decompression pauses. The boat follows the buoy in time. When the divers finally reach the surface, they get back on the boat and take it off.”
Six saboteurs are said to have damaged the pipelines
There were explosions last September on three of the four strands of the two Russian-German Nord Stream natural gas pipelines lying on the bottom of the Baltic Sea. Germany, Sweden and Denmark have started investigations.
The media in Germany, the USA and Great Britain had recently published information about the possible course of events. According to this, a group of six with forged passports is said to have rented a yacht and unnoticed placed the explosive devices in a water depth of a good 80 meters.
