On the night of September 27-28, 1994, 852 people on board the
Estonia
ferry
were swallowed up in their sleep by the Baltic Sea in just a few minutes, during a storm off Finland.
The 155 meter long ferry operated between Tallinn and Stockholm.
Of the 803 passengers and 186 crew, only 137 of the 989 people on board could be rescued.
Read also: Shipwreck of Estonia: survivors and relatives of the victims will not be compensated
An international tripartite commission between Sweden, Estonia and Finland had concluded in 1997 to a deficiency of the locking system of the retractable bow door which, torn by the waves during the storm, would have allowed the water to s '' rush onto the parking deck reserved for cars.
Part of the Estonia was raised from the seabed off the island of Uto on the night of November 19, 1994, nearly two months after the sinking JAAKKO AVIKAINEN / AFP
But a discovery made by Swedish documentary filmmakers has revived the investigation into this shipwreck considered the worst maritime disaster since the
Titanic
.
At first resistant, Sweden said it was ready, Friday, December 18, to authorize new inspections on the wreck of the ferry-boat transformed into a marine cemetery for two decades.
"A hole of 4 meters"
A hole of about four meters in the hull.
This is what the documentary "
Estonia
: the discovery that changes everything"
revealed in September 2020
.
The experts contacted for the film also indicate that only a massive force from outside could have caused such a tear.
A month after the documentary was broadcast, the Estonian government warned of the need to deepen the official investigation, which did not report any holes, probably until then "
covered by the seabed
" underlines the Estonian newspaper Postimees.
Theory of collision with a submarine
Theses around this enigmatic hole have proliferated since the documentary was released.
For former prosecutor Margus Kurm, who headed the commission of inquiry in 1994, the ferry was punctured by a submarine that
Estonia
collided with.
"
If we consider that the hole is below the waterline, that no one has mentioned the sinking of another boat with that of the 'Estonia', and that no survivors have seen any another ship nearby, the most likely cause is that of a collision with a submarine,
”said the prosecutor in an interview with the Estonian media ERR.
"
This hole resolves all the contradictory evidence
", continues the prosecutor questioned by
ERR
, referring in particular to the testimony of three sailors who claim to have "
seen from the engine room that the ramp was closed
", as well as the account of one of the sailors who explained that he "
saw thanks to a camera pointed at the ramp that it was closed and that water was coming in from the sides
".
In total, between 500 and 700 tons of water, according to the experts, entered the ship, “yet
scientists agree that there was too much water for it to enter through the sides of the ramp, but not enough so that it can get through the open ramp.
This hole, considerably smaller than an open ramp, could be the opening through which the water passed,
”concludes Margus Kurm.
"
The question now is what was a submarine doing on the route to 'Estonia'
."
Read also: The survivors and relatives of the victims of the shipwreck in
Estonia
seek compensation in France
Taking the opposite view of the prosecutor's interpretation, some assure however that the boat was pierced after having sunk, hitting a large rock.
"
Impossible
" according to Kurm, since "
the part where the hole was found never touched the bottom of the sea
".