Following the MS Estonia ferry sinking, one of the deadliest accidents in European waters, Sweden would give permission for an underwater examination of the shipwreck.
According to Reuters agency, a Discovery Network documentary presented new underwater video images from the wreck site, showing two previously unknown holes on the starboard side of the ship’s hull.
“If there is new information, we need to look into it and clear up any questions,” …Home Affairs Minister Mikael Damberg told during a news conference.
What is more, Damberg said the government hoped to amend the law designating the site of the disaster as a maritime memorial in the first half of next year.
To remind, τhe Estonian-flagged Ro-Ro passenger ferry Estonia had left Tallinn, Estonia, on 27 September 1994, planned to arrive at Stockholm, Sweden, carrying 989 people, 803 of whom were passengers.
Specifically, the vessel was sailing from Tallinn to Stockholm in bad weather. Winds were around 20 meters per second and the waves around 4 meters high, according to the official investigation.
After the bow shield failed, the ferry rapidly filled with water and most of those who died were trapped inside.
The ship sank about 22 nautical miles from Uto island in less than 85 metres of water.
In light of the above incident, the head of Sweden’s Accident Investigation Authority, John Ahlberk stated that a preliminary examination of footage from the documentary and previous material had not so far led to the conclusion that the 1997 official report had been wrong.
“What the investigation we are doing now is about is to find out, as far as possible, what made these holes and how they occurred”…he stated.
Concluding, the sinking of the ferry vessel MS Estonia in the Baltic Sea marks the second-deadliest peacetime sinking of a European ship, after the Titanic, as well as the deadliest peacetime shipwreck to have taken place in European waters.
