The tanker sails on the Mediterranean as an uncontrolled ghost ship, as “Spiegel” reports. Malta’s transport ministry is now even warning about driverless tankers.

Russian tanker was carrying massive amounts of liquid gas

The 277 meter long ship burst into flames on March 3 after two explosions off the Libyan coast. Russia blames Ukraine for the incident. There was initially no reaction from the Ukrainian side. However, Serhiy Sternenko, adviser to the Ukrainian Defense Minister, published on X “exclusive” footage taken from the air after the fire from the Russian gas tanker. Recently there were incidents involving merchant ships in the Black Sea. At the end of last year, when there were explosions on empty oil tankers, Ukrainian media reported that Kiev had used the Sea Baby maritime drones for the attacks.

The ship is said to have loaded around 140,000 cubic meters of liquid gas before it was destroyed. The Libyan coast guard initially reported that the ship had sunk. However, this has not been independently confirmed. The Norwegian company “Tradewinds”, which publishes shipping news, has published a suspected photo of the tanker. The ship then lists massively. However, the authenticity of the image has not yet been finally verified.

Malta sends out warning to shipping traffic about ghost ship

According to Maltese media reports, the government of Malta is preparing contingency plans in case the ship sails into its waters. The Ministry of Transport even sent out an official warning to shipping traffic, warning that the ghost ship is drifting in the area of ​​35 degrees, 24 minutes north latitude and 14 degrees, 27 minutes east longitude. Accordingly, the ship is currently drifting towards the Italian island of Lampedusa.