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1994: Part of the sunken »Estonia« is recovered from the Baltic Sea
Photo: Jaakko Aiikainen/Lehtikuva/AP
New investigations into the Baltic Sea ferry "Estonia" that sank in 1994 have so far found no signs of an explosion on board.
This emerges from an interim report with preliminary conclusions, which investigators from Estonia, Sweden and Finland presented on Monday in the Estonian capital Tallinn.
According to the current knowledge, there is no indication of an explosion in the bow of the ship, according to the report.
Accordingly, no traces have been discovered so far that would indicate a collision with a ship or other floating objects.
The "Estonia" sank in September 1994 with 989 people on board on the way from Tallinn to Stockholm off the south coast of Finland.
852 people died, only 137 survived.
The sinking is considered the worst ship disaster in post-war European history.
According to the official investigation report from 1997, the torn-off bow visor of the "Estonia" was the cause of the sinking - but doubts about this were repeatedly expressed.
"We are still in mourning"
As in 1997, the investigators also named defects in the bow visor.
The ferry was not seaworthy.
They therefore see no reason to question the final sentences of that time.
What is very important is the human side of the disaster, said the head of the Estonian Accident Commission, Rene Arikas.
»Even more than 28 years later, we can see and feel that it hurt a lot of people.
We still experience grief.«
Because many of the dead could not be recovered, the »Estonia« wreck is protected as a resting place and may not be visited.
For a documentary, a Swedish film team lowered a diving robot to the wreck in September 2019.
Among other things, they discovered a previously unknown hole in the right hull, several meters wide, which ultimately led to the new investigations by the authorities.
wit/dpa
