30 years since the Estonia disaster • Many answers are still missing • 51 Swedes survived
– In an accident investigation, it is extremely important to find out what happened and how it happened. When you make those questions visible, you can also see who was responsible. If you understand how and why and who was responsible, we get an explanation for the disaster that we can live with. Today there are big holes in these parts. We demand that you distance yourself from the previous report, says Sara Hedrenius.
51 Swedes survived
The sinking of M/S Estonia is the largest peacetime shipping disaster in Nordic waters and one of the deadliest in the 20th century. 989 people – passengers and crew – were on board when the disaster occurred on September 28, 1994. 853 people died. Of them, 501 were Swedes. Sara Hedrenius is one of the 51 Swedes who survived.
A Novus survey conducted by Nyheterna shows that a majority of Swedes, 54 percent, do not want to see a new investigation into the disaster. At the same time, a survey carried out by Infostat on behalf of Sara Hedrenius and a group of survivors shows that close to half of the population, just over 49 percent, do not believe that the cause of the accident has been clarified.
As you ask, you get answers
– I think it goes without saying – who wants a new investigation? But one asks instead: Do you know why Estonia sank, or do you have confidence in how the authorities have handled this? Or does the question of the cause of the accident arouse distrust in our society? Then you get different answers, says Sara Hedrenius.
The survivors believe that it is important for trust in authorities, politicians and society in general to once and for all try to do everything possible to investigate the cause of the accident and the question of responsibility and that lessons can be learned that Sweden can benefit from. They may also experience that the ambiguities cause the subject to be avoided, for example at school.
– At school, students learn everything about the Titanic, that the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank. It is more difficult to talk about Estonia when the subject is surrounded by so much suspicion and uncertainty about what is true, says Sara Hedrenius.