STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Estonia, Sweden and Finland will read about new evidence of the sinking of the Estonian ferry, which collapsed 26 years ago on Monday with the loss of 852 lives in the worst maritime crisis in peacetime since World War II.
The roll-on roll-off ferry, with 803 passengers and 186 team members, sank into a stormy Baltic Sea shortly the after, on 28 September 1994. The official 1997 investigation concluded that the front shield had failed, damaging the forward ramp and flooding the car bridge.
However, Sweden said a Discovery Network documentary about the crisis included new underwater video images of the shipwreck that appeared to be wounded on the starboard side of the wreckage.
“Estonia, Finland and Sweden agreed that the verification of the new data presented in the documentary will be carried out,” the chancellors of the three countries as a whole said on Monday.
“Our countries will cooperate strongly in this and Estonia, as a flag state, will lead this process. “
The flag status is the country in which a shipment is registered.
“A new technical investigation into Estonia’s sinking cases will need to be conducted,” said Estonian Prime Minister Juri Rats quoted through BNS Newswire.
The Estonian ferry departed From Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, and headed to Stockholm in bad weather. The winds were about 20 meters consistent with the moment and the waves about four meters high, according to the official survey.
After the bow shield failed, the ferry was temporarily filled with water and most of those who died were trapped inside.
The ship sank approximately 22 nautical miles from Uto Island in less than meters of water.
(Reporting through Simon Johnson in Stockholm and Andrius Sytas in Vilnius; edited through Gareth Jones)
Subscribe
Sign up for our news explosion.