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In an interview with the Estonian newspaper Eesti Päevaleht 25 and Estonia TV, Kurm comments on the new photos of the shipwreck, which show a 4-meter-long indentation in the side of the ferry that sank in the Baltic Sea in 1994.
Kurm believes the photos indicate that the ferry was hit by a submarine, not that it sank as a result of a bow door failure, as the official investigation determined.
– That’s my opinion. I’m not 100 percent sure, but since this damage is below the waterline, and none of the surviving witnesses have spoken of a ship in the water, that indicates that, Kurm told the newspaper.
In an interview with the Estonian newspaper Postimees, he rules out that Estonia may have been hit by a fishing boat and says the ferry “collided with something big enough to cause this hole.”
Led behind the light
When asked by Eesti Päevaleht 25 if he believes that the authorities of an allied country may have led Estonia and others behind the light, Kurm responds:
Diving in the wreckage of Estonia’s crashed ferry in the Baltic Sea has been banned since 1995, but the producers of a new documentary series chose to defy this ban and found a hitherto unknown crack in the hull. Photo: EPA / NTB
– Yes, yes, but without suggesting which countries you may have in mind.
Kurm led the Estonian government expert report after the wreck, which in 2006 challenged the final report of the International Accident Investigation Board.
Estonian investigators concluded that AIBN’s explanation that the forward door came loose was not in line with what survivors said after the wreck.
Alternative explanation
The Estonian think tank also concluded that no answer was given on how water could get under the car’s tire, which, according to Kurm, was decisive for the way Estonia sank.
“Because of this, we cannot rule out some of the alternative explanations for the sinking of Estonia,” Kurm said in 2006.
Estonian Prime Minister Jüri Ratas is now demanding that the shipwreck be re-examined.
– A new technical investigation of the circumstances in Estonia should be carried out. In our opinion, the technical investigation should include underwater observations, and we have informed Finland and Sweden about the case, Ratas said during a press conference Monday.
Trust the Accident Investigation Board
Earlier Monday, the prime ministers of Estonia, Sweden and Finland issued a joint statement emphasizing that they have full confidence in the conclusions of the 1997 AIBN final report. It claims that an error led to the bow door being torn off and that, therefore, the ferry quickly filled up. with water and sank
The 4 meter long indentation in the hull was discovered during work on a new documentary series about the shipwreck, made by Monster and Dplay.
Fredet
The disaster killed 852 people, including six Norwegians. 501 of the dead were from Sweden, 285 from Estonia. The other victims came from 14 other countries.
Estonia, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Denmark, Russia and the United Kingdom agreed in 1995 to protect the wreck as a cemetery, which means a ban on diving at the site. The producers of the new documentary series chose to challenge this ban.
