“U.S. authorities have now admitted to us that they were responsible for what happened”, Arne Moen Grønningseter, Head of the Operations Department at the Joint Operations Headquarters says to NRK.
The incident happened during a drill the Norwegian coast guard vessel “KV Nordkapp” held together with the U.S. destroyer “USS Farragut” outside the coast of Finnmark on August 24, but was only made public ten days later.
The crew of “KV Nordkapp” suddenly got technical problems with the vessel – equipment simply shut down by itself, and they felt that their skin got warm from the radiation they were exposed to. They then asked the American vessel to turn off its radar. One person was hospitalized and four others sent to medical care in Tromsø, where “KV Nordkapp” arrived after finishing the “Northern Eagle” exercise in Severomorsk.
A report from the committee investigating the incident concludes that the crew was exposed to electromagnetic radiation by radar operating in the frequency band 3-4 GHZ.
The U.S. Navy first denied that “USS Farragut” send out any radiation close to the “KV Nordkapp” , claiming that the destroyer’s radar systems are constructed to shut down whenever there is another vessel nearby.
“I am sure they wanted to give a thorough report and therefore chose not to give any information until now”, Arne Moen Grønningseter says when being asked why it took so long to get an answer to what happened. “The information they now have given us, agree with our own observations”, he adds.
