For five days, the National Accident Commission and the corresponding authorities from Estonia and Finland worked around the clock to investigate Estonia’s wreckage.
– It is a challenge, of course, says Jonas Bäckstrand, chairman of the investigation at the National Accident Commission.
Firstly, being at this type of accident is very special in that it is a burial ground. Since then we have been working 24 hours a day and it is tiring even if we try to go in shifts.
Has a lot of material
– The twelve-ton bow ramp could be salvaged shortly after 02 am on Tuesday. The work was delayed because the outside of the ramp needed to be excavated to prevent it from collapsing. It will now be transported to Estonia where it will be further examined.
With them ashore, the investigators have the material they wanted to get their hands on – and some more.
– It has exceeded expectations and we have been able to do more than we had dared to hope for, says Jonas Bäckstrand.
Among other things, the investigators were able to photograph further into car tires than they had thought, salvage a window and cut out a piece of sheet metal at the holes in the hull that were discovered in a documentary film from 2020.
Bäckstrand does not think there will be any more dives down to the wreck, 80 meters below the surface.
– I don’t see that it would be relevant right now, but it depends a little on the results we get.
“Will Do”
In addition to the investigations at the wreck, investigative work is underway elsewhere. Among other things, survivors are interviewed the night MS Estonia sank in 1994. 852 people died, of which 501 were Swedes. 137 people were rescued.
According to Bäckstrand, there is now enough information to say with certainty why Estonia sank.
All in all, I absolutely believe it will be enough, he says.