It was the worst shipping disaster in Europe since World War II. And to this day there are doubts about the cause of the accident. Now a private expedition is setting off again to the shipwreck.
Tallinn – New expedition to the wreck of the Baltic Sea ferry “Estonia”, which sank in 1994: A privately financed team of experts from Estonia set off for the site of the accident at the weekend.
On behalf of the survivors’ organization of the victims of the ship disaster, a research ship set sail in Eemshaven in the Netherlands on Saturday. It is expected to arrive at the scene of the accident on Wednesday and initiate new investigations there, reported the Estonian newspaper “Postimees” on Monday. Various sonar devices will be used to examine the ship and the sea floor.
The expedition, which takes place parallel to an official investigation by state authorities, is led by the former Estonian public prosecutor and “Estonia” investigator Margus Kurm. “Our goal is to map, film and scan all damage to the Estonia wreck, and to examine the car deck and the area around the wreck,” he said.
The sinking of the “Estonia” is considered to be the worst shipping disaster in Europe after the Second World War. The ferry sank on the night of September 28, 1994 with 989 people on board on its way from Tallinn to Stockholm off the Finnish south coast. 852 people died, only 137 survived. According to the official investigation report from 1997, the torn off bow visor was the cause of the sinking. But to this day there are still doubts about the cause of the accident.
Survivors and bereaved relatives have long been calling for the examinations to be restarted. Documentary filmmakers had revived the discussion the previous year – they had discovered holes in the ship’s hull with a diving robot, among other things. These were confirmed in the course of a preliminary study on the wreck that was subsequently initiated by the investigative authorities in Estonia, Sweden and Finland. More extensive official investigations are to follow in spring 2022 after the complete evaluation of the collected data. dpa
