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Navy Oceanographic Survey Ship Arrives in Estonia

Navy NewsStand

Story Number: NNS080527-21
Release Date: 5/27/2008 12:52:00 PM

By Gillian Brigham, Sealift Logistics Command Europe Public Affairs

TALLINN, Estonia (NNS) -- Military Sealift Command oceanographic survey ship USNS Pathfinder (T-AGS 60) arrived in Tallinn, May 26, to conduct undersea mine warfare demonstrations with the Estonian military in conjunction with a search for the Finnish airplane Kaleva that crashed off the coast of Estonia in the Gulf of Finland on June 14, 1940.

Kaleva, which was carrying nine passengers, including U.S. diplomatic courier Henry W. Antheil, Jr., mysteriously exploded 10 minutes after taking off from Tallinn's airport on the first day of the Soviet-blockade of Estonia during World War II. News of the blockade and of Kaleva's crash was overshadowed by the Nazi occupation of Paris, which also occurred on June 14. The wreckage of Kaleva and the remains of its nine passengers have never been found.

Estonia's Minister of Defense, Jaak Aaviksoo, requested the assistance of a U.S. Navy survey ship in searching for the downed airplane in a January 2008 letter to U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

"We are excited to collaborate with the Estonian military and to search for Kaleva," said Capt. Nicholas H. Holman, the commander of CTF-63/Sealift Logistics Command Europe, who oversees all U.S. Navy noncombatant ships and aircraft operating in Europe and Africa.

"This is a wonderful opportunity for us to work together and build upon the already strong partnership between our two nations."

Oceanographic survey ships have a history of being asked to find missing aircraft. In January 2007, Pathfinder's sister ship USNS Mary Sears (T-AGS 65) was part of a team that successfully located a commercial jetliner that disappeared off the coast of West Sulawesi, Indonesia.

For more news from Military Sealift Command, visit www.navy.mil/local/MSC/.