The Mistral Vladivostok Without Nationality Following A Russian Piracy Act?
The unexpected change of the MMSI (Maritime Mobile Service Identity) of the Mistral Vladivostok last friday November the 14th , showing this one as russian on online tracking systems, raises a few questions: Who decided this change and why? Who decided to change the MMSI is quite unclear at the moment where we are writing this article. DCNS explains it not very convincingly by a test requested by VERITAS. Less than one hour after we published an article warning of the MMSI change, the beacon stopped sending signals with the russian MMSI and started sending with the french MMSI the day after. Everything is leading us to think that a russian crew member proceeded with this manipulation and was rebuffed following our publication and the questions asked consequently to DCNS. Technically speaking, the MMSI number programmed on the beacon cannot be modified without prior unblocking provided by the manufacturer, similar to unblocking a cellular phone. This is due to...