The foreign ministers of Finland, Estonia and Sweden have released a joint statement saying they’ll assess any “new significant information” about the sinking of the ferry M/S Estonia, exactly 26 years ago in 1994.
The foreign ministers made their comments after new video footage emerged, filmed underwater as part of a Discovery Network television documentary, which appears to show a large hole in the starboard side of the wreckage.
The ferry sank on 28th September 1994 on a crossing from Tallinn to Stockholm with the loss of 852 passengers and crew. Most of the victims were Swedes and Estonians, but ten Finnish passengers were also among the casualties in one of Europe’s worst peacetime shipping disasters.
An extensive investigation has already concluded that poorly-stacked cargo meant the ferry was already listing as it left port in Tallinn, and then strong waves ripped open part of the bow door which allowed water to flood in.
Conflicting theories
In Tallinn on Monday, Prime Minister Jüri Ratas told a press conference that based on the video footage a new technical investigation should now be carried out, and include a seabed survey of the wreckage - which is considered a grave site.
Meanwhile a former head of the Estonian investigation committee into the disaster has added intrigue saying he thinks the ferry collided with something, possibly a submarine.
“We can not rule out that Estonia might have hit the submarine, grazed the submarine. The question is what was a submarine doing on Estonia’s route” Margus Kurm said in an interview with ETV.
Kurm’s comments reference a theory that has been raised before, which speculates that a Swedish navy submarine was shadowing the M/S Estonia for some reason, and may have collided with it. Another theory speculates there was some explosives on board which detonated.
On Monday a senior investigator with Finland’s Safety Investigation Authority Otkes says he’s reviewed again the original investigation report, and believes it stands up well.
“The ship sank as water came from the front of the car deck. The hole below the waterline as a cause of sinking is impossible” says Kai Valonen.
“What is that hole then, and why hasn’t it been seen before? I do not know. A good estimate might be that it happened when the ship hit the bottom. And that it has been covered in mud or something at the time of the investigation. Anyway, no ship sank because of that hole” Valonen states.
Read more about the M/S Estonia disaster, how emergency services improved and modernised since then, and read the account of an Estonian politician who lost her father when the ferry sank, at our original story here.
