[ad_1]
The sinking of the Estonia is one of the greatest catastrophes European civil shipping has ever experienced. 852 people died on a stormy night in 1994. Divers may soon be able to go to the crash site.
Two months after the sinking, parts of Estonia were recovered in November 1994.
Photo: Jaakko Aiikainen (Keystone)
The wreckage of the Estonia ferry, which sank in the Baltic Sea in 1994, will be examined in dives for the first time. Swedish Interior Minister Mikael Damberg announced Friday afternoon in Stockholm. To clear the way for such dives, a law must first be changed, whereby several Baltic Sea countries declared Estonia a sea grave in 1995. Since then, dives in the Estonian wreck have been banned in prison, they are considered to disturb the peace of the dead. “The government is now examining how the law can be changed,” the interior minister said. Expect a result early next year.
The Swedish government’s decision was preceded by a recommendation from the investigating authorities of the three countries Estonia, Finland and Sweden, calling for further underwater investigations. Disaster survivors and victims’ families have been asking for it for years, they have welcomed Sweden’s decision, which is now paving the way. The debate flared up again in September: a multi-part television documentary had shown footage of the shipwreck 80 meters below the surface, showing a previously unknown four-meter long crack in the bow of the ferry.
Most of the victims were Swedish.
852 people died on September 28, 1994 when the Estonia sank on a stormy night on the way from Tallinn to Stockholm, not far from the Finnish coast. Only 137 passengers survived. For Europe’s civil navigation, it was the greatest war-free disaster since the sinking of the Titanic. Most of the victims were Swedes, in the country since then death has been considered a national trauma. Family members and survivors were never satisfied with the official 1997 investigation report, which cited faulty hinges and a bow hatch that opened in a storm as the cause of the accident.
At the time, inspectors from the three countries involved never inspected the wreck at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The flaws in the investigation and the report subsequently fueled many conspiracy theories. Some believed there was a bomb on board, others that it was attacking a submarine. The fact that military equipment had apparently been transported into Estonia from time to time fueled conspiracy theorists.
Military cargo transported?
Possibly, some now think, are those Dokumentarfilmern He discovered cracks in the hull of the Estonia that only formed after the ship sank. For the family associations, however, they were reason enough to request new tests and dives after the transmission of the documentation. “We want answers to a series of questions. This affects both the holes in the hull and the question whether Estonia could have transported a military cargo on the night of the sinking, “said Anders Eriksson, one of the survivors, broadcaster SVT. Polls show that most Swedes agree, pressure on the Stockholm government had increased in recent months.
“We would like to be able to see and examine these holes correctly to determine if they are relevant to the results of the previous investigation from 1997,” Jonas Bäckstrand, president of the Swedish accident investigation authority, told SVT broadcaster on Friday. Diving with robot divers may have been enough.
