On January 14, a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tanker sailing under the name
Captoon 2 (IMO 8817693) set off from the Romano port in Albania, bound for Tripoli in northern Lebanon. It then turned off its Automatic Identification System (AIS) and sailed on radio silence for more than a week—reappearing 10 days later off Cyprus.
The curious pattern repeated itself with two other LPG tankers. The
Katara (IMO 9003079) set sail from the Turkish port of Dortyol on January 20, going off the radar near Cyprus while signaling for Beirut. It reappeared five days later at the same location. And earlier this month, the
Happy (IMO 9040170), left Aspropyrgos in Greece for an unclear location, going dark on February 10 in the same area off Cyprus only to reappear four days later as it was leaving the region. Yet another vanishing act.