According to the Swedish Accident Investigation Board, no signs of an explosion have been found in the wreck so far.
The Estonia wreck has been examined by underwater robots since Wednesday. Sweden, Finland and Estonia want to find out once and for all whether there was something shady about the sinking of the passenger ship. The ship sank at the end of September 29 years ago.
Theories about a possible explosion on board gained new momentum three years ago. In a Norwegian documentary it was reported at the time that a four-meter tear had been found in the ship.
The Swedish Accident Investigation Board has led new investigations into the Estonian wreck from the Viking Research ship.
– The conditions are difficult, and there is a big danger that the robots will get caught, the leader of the investigations Jonas Bäckstrand The Swedish Accident Investigation Board said Swedish newspaper for Aftonbladet yesterday sunday.
– However, everything is going well. We have managed to dive to a depth of 77 meters and inside a car deck last night. We are nowhere near ready, Bäckstrand said.
He said that the group had identified the vehicles that had sunk with Estonia by their brands and registration numbers. The almost fully loaded ship sank stern first.
– There are piles of lumber and cars on top of each other, Bäckstrand told Aftonbladet.
“No signs of an explosion”
Today, Monday, the Accident Investigation Board said that it was able to carry out the investigations it wanted with robots. They took samples from the bedrock under the crack and from the metal around the crack.
According to Bäckstrand, the video footage taken in the wreckage shows no signs of an explosion. According to him, the tear seems to have occurred when the ship sank to the bottom.
– We have photographed around the starboard side tear both inside and outside. We can state that there is no destroyed material as there would have been in the event of an explosion. The color is stored, for example, says Bäckstrand for Swedish television (SVT).
Investigator Daniel Söderman The Swedish Accident Investigation Board agreed.
– We haven’t seen anything strangely unusual. The tear has sunk in and has dents, but the white color is clearly visible everywhere. We are still investigating this, but the damage appears to have been caused when the ship hit the bottom. That is most likely, Söderman said news agency for TT.
The bow ramp is raised
The research team is scheduled to prepare the lifting of the ship’s bow ramp today, Monday. Lifting is considered the most difficult and dangerous phase of research. The bow ramp weighs about 12 tons.
– We have to anticipate as many risks as possible in order to get the ramp up. We also don’t want to damage it unnecessarily and we don’t want anyone to get hurt when we lift it off the ship, Jonas Bäckstrand tells SVT.
The bow ramp will be transported to Estonia for examination. It is hoped that the studies will be completed during the fall. Examining the ramp is not expected to change the perception of the course of the accident.
Estonia’s bow visor was raised shortly after the accident. According to the official accident investigation, the cause of the sinking was the detachment of the bow visor in rough seas and water flooding the ship.
Estonia sank on September 28, 1994. It was on its way from Tallinn to Stockholm. 852 people died in the accident.