Investigators of the tragedy on Tuesday partially responded to the reasons why the MS Estonia ferry sank in the cold Baltic Sea 27 years ago and killed more than 850 people, but they say no conclusions can yet be drawn from the disaster.
A new investigation into an accident carried out by Estonian, Swedish and Finnish groups during the summer found that the holes in the hull of the ferry could be due to the ship colliding with a submarine rock, but the researchers said the site needed further investigation.
The investigation, led by the Estonian Safety Investigation Agency, Swedish accident investigators and Stockholm University, began with a relatively recent documentary about the accident, which revealed a previously unseen hole in the hull.
They said the bedrock protruded at several locations on the seabed in the shipโs sinking area and that the discovery of the rock formations was one of the most significant done during the sounding.
This summer, researchers used an underwater ROV drone robot, sonar and other techniques to scan the wreck and its surroundings for eight days in July, mainly to study the shipโs exterior and seabed.
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Director of the Estonian Security Investigation Board at a press conference in Tallinn, Estonia on Tuesday Rene Arikas, said the researchers were unable to examine all parts of the ship because it was not possible to get further on the car deck because it was too dangerous for the equipment used.
An official accident investigation, which ended in 1997, found that a visor at the bow of the ship, which allowed vehicles to enter and leave the ferry, had detached from the ship and allowed seawater to fill the car deck, causing the ferry to sink.
The new sonar found the ship’s visor lying on the sea floor next to the shipwreck completely separate from the ship.
"At present, there is no reason to claim that the findings of the 1997 investigation were incorrect," Arikas said Tuesday.
However, he describes last summerโs investigation as preliminary.
Among other things, Arikas said that the car deck of the ferry will be looked at in more detail in the spring with more suitable equipment.
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Arikas pointed out that the team is also planning to re-interview the survivors of the accident, as the interviews conducted in the years following the tragedy were not very high quality.
"Not all survivors were even interviewed. Others were treated very superficially," he said.
On their way from Tallinn to Stockholm, Estonia sank in the middle of the night on September 28, 1994 in the waters of the Baltic Sea in less than an hour. The tragedy claimed 852 lives, making it one of the worst maritime disasters in the world in a century.
Source: The Nordic Page