The ship's 1994 sinking, in the Baltic Sea between Sweden, Åland, Finland and Estonia, was one of the worst maritime disasters of the 20th century. At the last moment, the company withdrew their order and the contract went to Rederi Ab Sally, one of the partners in the Viking Line consortium (SF Line, another partner in Viking Line, had also been interested in the ship). Map showing where divers observed bodies. As a result, documentary director Henrik Evertsson and another crew member were arrested following their examination of the site last September, and face up to two years’ imprisonment in Sweden for violating the sanctity of the gravesite. Instead of retrieving the bodies, the government of Sweden hired a Dutch marine salvage firm, Smit Tak BV, that specializes in neutralizing underwater nuclear waste, spending $350 million in a failed attempt to cover the ship in concrete. [2] By the time the rescue helicopters arrived, around a third of those who escaped from the Estonia had died of hypothermia, while fewer than half of those who had managed to leave the ship were eventually rescued. Survivors and relatives of those killed have fought for more than two decades for a fuller investigation, with some claiming that the opening of the bow visor would not have caused the vessel to sink as quickly as it did. In total, 94 bodies were recovered: 93 within 33 days of the accident, the last victim was found 18 months later. When the ferry MS Herald of Free Enterprise sank in the English Channel in 1987, it was refloated and the bodies removed. German journalist Jutta Rabe and the left-wing magazine New Statesman claim that laboratory tests on debris recovered illegally from Estonia's bow yielded trace evidence of a deliberate explosion, which they allege was concealed by the Swedish, British, and Russian governments to cover up an intelligence operation smuggling military hardware via the civilian ferry. Rederi Ab Sally had been experiencing financial difficulties for most of the 1980s. MS Estonia, sank 1994 baltic sea 852 people died. Citing the practical difficulties and the moral implications of raising decaying bodies from the sea floor (the majority of the bodies were never recovered), and fearing the financial burden of lifting the entire hull to the surface an… On the night of September 27-28, 1994, the ferry MS Estonia, carrying 989 passengers between Tallinn and Stockholm, sank in the Baltic Sea, hit by hard weather and winds measuring 9 on the Beaufort scale, which caused enormous waves. Recommendations for modifications to be applied to similar ships included separation of the condition sensors from the latch and hinge mechanisms. All the countries were opposed to re-floating the MS Estonia, due to the costs and complex logistics involved with raising such a large vessel, not to mention the large number of bodies trapped in the hull. When Sally took over the construction contract, the ship was lengthened from the original length of approximately 137 metres (449 ft) to approximately 155 metres (509 ft) and the superstructure of the ship was largely redesigned. According to the Swedish Ministry of Defence, no such equipment was on board on the day of the disaster, and previous investigations by the Swedish Customs Service found no reports of any anomalous activity around the day of the disaster. [26] Members of the Joint Accident Investigation Commission denied these claims, saying that the damage seen on the debris occurred during the visor's detachment from the vessel. The ship sank within an hour, taking the lives of 852 passengers and crew. The accident claimed 852 lives. Two bodies have subsequently been found in the area of the Gulf of Finland, one in the open sea and one on the shorelines of Estonia. The wreck was examined and videotaped by remotely operated underwater vehicles and by divers from a Norwegian company, Rockwater A/S, contracted for the investigation work. The pilot of OH-HVG stated that landing on the ferries was the most difficult part of the whole rescue operation; despite that, this single helicopter rescued 44 people, more than all the ferries. Mariella, the first of five ferries to reach the scene of the accident, arrived at 02:12. Divers have found 125 bodies in the restaurants and bars, and about 600 are still in their cabins; whole families are buried down there. Wilson, Drew (2006), "The Hole: Another look at the sinking of the Estonia Ferry on September 28th 1994". This video was done not long after the disaster so the cabin is checked for bodies first, 852 people died and many bodies would still be inside the ship. After a decision not to salvage the wreck or the bodies of the victims, the governments of Sweden, Estonia and Finland signed a treaty in 1995, where they agreed to designate the site of the wreck a final resting place and make it illegal for its citizens to disturb the site by diving down to it. After that, the voice of third mate Andres Tammes took over on Estonia and the conversation shifted to Finnish. (Chapter 3.2.7 – Bridge layout)", "Chapter 13.4 – Advance indications and alarms from the bow area", Investigation report on the capsizing on 28 September 1994 in the Baltic Sea of the Ro-Ro Passenger Vessel MV Estonia. [22] Estonia's distress beacons or EPIRBs required manual activation, which did not happen. He is entering Cabin 6129 on Deck 6. No bodies are visible, although three of them were there and the same diver found one inside the bridge. The bridge was also situated too far back on the ferry for the visor to be seen from there. Until now the countries involved, including Estonia, Sweden and Finland, have proven extremely reluctant to re-examine the causes of the disaster. The ro-ro MS Estonia sank on September 28, 1994 in the Baltic Sea in one of the worst maritime disasters of the 20th century. The construction of the ship's bow consisted of an upwards-opening visor and a car ramp that was placed inside the visor when it was closed. One of the victims of the sinking was the Estonian singer Urmas Alender. She was painted in Silja Line's colours, renamed Silja Star and placed on the same route that she had plied for Viking Line: Turku–Mariehamn–Stockholm. [JAIC 5] The bow visor and ramp had been torn off at points that would not trigger an "open" or "unlatched" warning on the bridge, as is the case in normal operation or failure of the latches. [2] Ships rescued 34 and helicopters 104; the ferries played a much smaller part than the planners had intended because it was too dangerous to launch their man-overboard (MOB) boats or lifeboats. New York: ASJA Press. The bodies of these voyagers still lie within the vessel, completely decomposed, as the MS Estonia serves as an unorthodox crematorium.The disaster claimed 852 lives. Of the 989 on board, 138 were rescued, one of whom died later in hospital. He is entering Cabin 6129 on Deck 6. Short video clips showing the outside of the sunken Estonia were released during the investigation, but most of the 80 hours of tape had been classified. [31] [27], In the autumn of 2004, a former Swedish customs officer claimed on Sveriges Television that Estonia had been used to transport military equipment in September 1994. [4], Coordinates: .mw-parser-output .geo-default,.mw-parser-output .geo-dms,.mw-parser-output .geo-dec{display:inline}.mw-parser-output .geo-nondefault,.mw-parser-output .geo-multi-punct{display:none}.mw-parser-output .longitude,.mw-parser-output .latitude{white-space:nowrap}59°23′0″N 21°40′0″E / 59.38333°N 21.66667°E / 59.38333; 21.66667, The ship was originally ordered from Meyer Werft by a Norwegian shipping company led by Parley Augustsen with intended traffic between Norway and Germany. The ship was fully loaded, and was listing slightly to starboard because of poor cargo distribution.[13]. Maritime disasters have haunted humans since we first learned how to arrange objects in a way that let us float atop them. The British government signed a treaty in 1995 making it illegal for anyone to dive down to the wreckage. An identical bow construction had also been used in Diana II. The video: The dive investigation team infiltrating into passenger cabin room number 6129, deck 6 the MS Estonia. Authorities believe 996 people were aboard the Estonia when it sank on a voyage from Tallinn, Estonia, to Stockholm. On September 28, 1994, a passenger ferry called the MS Estonia sank in the Baltic Sea, en route from Tallinn, Estonia to Stockholm, Sweden. Short video clips showing the outside of the sunken Estonia were released during the investigation, but most of the 80 hours of tape had been classified. A diver with nerves of steel enters the wreck of the Estonia ferry that sank in 1994 to gather evidence for the investigation into it's sinking. The MS Estonia consisted of 11 decks, counting from the lowest (0) to the highest (10). [37] The treaty is, however, only binding for citizens of the countries that are signatories. In the early hours of 28th September 1994, the MS Estonia, a car, and passenger ferry, en route from Tallinn to Stockholm, sank in the Baltic Sea off Finland’s coast. [JAIC 1]. This is the worst disaster in the history of … 503)", "Chapter 13.5 – Failure sequence of bow visor and ramp", "Figure 3.4 Approximate field of vision from the bridge. Demands were also made that the entire ship be raised so that the cause of the disaster could be discovered by detailed inspection. ... in part because of the cost and logistics of raising the vast number of bodies … [9] Also in 1990 Effoa, Johnson Line and Rederi Ab Sally merged into EffJohn. A storm damaged the car ferry and it sank in minutes – one the worst maritime disasters in Europe. A total of 852 people drowned when the passenger and car ferry sank in Finnish waters in the early hours of 28 September 1994 while en route from Tallinn to Stockholm, in Europe’s worst peacetime shipping disaster. Estonia directed a call to Silja Europa and only after making contact with her did the radio operator utter the word "Mayday". Many bodies remain unrecovered in the wreck and exploratory diving was banned at the site under a 1995 agreement signed by the governments of Estonia, Finland and Sweden. About 650 people were still inside the ship when it sank. She was carrying 989 people: 803 passengers and 186 crew. This video was done not long after the disaster so the cabin is checked for bodies first, 852 people died and many bodies … The windows gave way to the powerful waves as the ship listed and the sea reached the upper decks. The same effect caused the capsizing of MS Herald of Free Enterprise seven years earlier. [32], In the aftermath of the disaster, many relatives of the deceased demanded that their loved ones be raised from international waters and given a land burial. The makers of the Discovery Networks documentary Estonia: The Find That Changes Everything discovered the hole when they explored the wreckage with a remote-controlled submarine. The JAIC cited results from Germany's Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, which found that Jutta Rabe's samples did not prove an explosion occurred. The report was critical of the crew's actions, particularly for failing to reduce speed before investigating the noises emanating from the bow, and for being unaware that the list was being caused by water entering the vehicle deck. [24], New designs, the "citadel concept" once again influenced by Estonia, aim to ensure damaged ships have sufficient buoyancy to remain afloat, though cost will determine if any are built. [12][JAIC 2] Most of the passengers were Swedish, although some were of Estonian origin, while most of the crew members were Estonian. Only 137 people survived the disaster. Nordic leaders have announced that they will examine evidence from a new television documentary that could shatter the official explanation of how 852 people died in a 1994 ferry sinking in the Baltic Sea. [29][30], On 28 September 2020 a Swedish documentary was released which used underwater equipment to film the wreck. [5], Originally the ship was conceived as a sister ship to Diana II, built in 1979 by the same shipyard for Rederi AB Slite, the third partner in Viking Line. Experts told the film-makers that only a massive external force would be strong enough to cause the rupture, raising many questions about what really happened that night. A thorough examination of the MS Estonia would have helped in construction of new ferries, where potential weaknesses would have been identified. A tragic accident, due to a combination of factors, including uneven loading of cargo, rough seas and ill advised behaviour (turning too fast) by the ship's captain. Still missing are 757 persons. During this and several other dives by the same team, nearly 100 bodies were discovered in a fairly small section of the ship. Survivors described hearing a loud bang and Reintamm said he saw a large white object in the water next to the ferry, testimony that experts interviewed in the programme said had not been taken into account before now. On the night of September 27-28, 1994, the ferry MS Estonia, carrying 989 passengers between Tallinn and Stockholm, sank in the Baltic Sea, hit by hard weather and winds measuring 9 on the Beaufort scale, which caused enormous waves. As with many ships, Viking Sally suffered some mishaps during her Viking Line service, being grounded in the Åland Archipelago in May 1984 and suffering some propeller problems in April of the following year. [25], Alternative theories exist about the cause of the sinking. After a decision not to salvage the wreck or the bodies of the victims, the governments of Sweden, Estonia and Finland signed a treaty in 1995, where they agreed to designate the site of the wreck a final resting place and make it illegal for its citizens to disturb the site by diving down to it. This page was last edited on 7 January 2021, at 11:49. This is a modal window. Sweden, Finland and Estonia to jointly assess new information on 1994 sinking of MS Estonia. Mariella winched open liferafts into the sea onto which 13 people on Estonia's rafts successfully transferred, and reported the location of other rafts to Swedish and Finnish rescue helicopters, the first of which arrived at 03:05. The ship went down in just one hour, leaving only 137 survivors. [2] In the aftermath of the disaster, many relatives of the deceased demanded that their loved ones be raised from international waters and given a land burial. Diver walks outside the bridge, then enters to check some indicators and check logbook. The actual ownership of the ship was rather complex, in order for Nordström & Thulin to get a loan to buy the ship. The area near the Finnish island of Utö was designated a sea grave, prohibiting further exploration of the wreckage. [13] Estonia was turned to port and slowed before her four engines cut out completely.[13]. [21] There were also general criticisms of the delays in sounding the alarm, the passivity of the crew, and the lack of guidance from the bridge. [10], The Estonia disaster occurred on Wednesday, 28 September 1994, between about 00:55 and 01:50 (UTC+2) as the ship was crossing the Baltic Sea, en route from Tallinn, Estonia, to Stockholm, Sweden. Sweden, Finland and Estonia to jointly assess new information on 1994 sinking of MS Estonia. 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