Damaged GO submarine cable repaired
GO says submarine cable damaged by third parties on 5 November has been repaired.
Damage caused to GO's submarine cable after being dragged for 200 metres by an anchored ship before ripping completely
A submarine cable connecting Malta and Sicily, which had been damaged early November has been repaired by a specialised repair vessel, GO said.
International authorities are investigating the cause of the damage which was believed to have been the result of a ship anchored in shallow waters dragging the cable just off the Sicilian coast.
GO’s chief technical officer Michael Mertsch said that although no company can prevent such situations, the impact on customers was minimised within a short span of time despite the extent of the damage.
The cable, which was embedded into the seabed, was dragged for 200 metres before being completely ripped.
Around 1.5 kilometres of cable had to be replaced and linked in before burying it once again into the seabed by a remote operated unmanned submarine.
”As CTO, I must praise the way in which many employees from across GO dropped everything as soon as the damage was confirmed on the weekend to be able to deal with this crisis and worked continuously to resolve it,” Mertsch said.
