From Thread: How did the 'Estonia' sink 1994?

BBC: New clue to Estonia sinking

New evidence has been put forward suggesting that the Estonia ferry, which sank six years ago, was damaged by an explosion.

A representative of survivors and victims' families, who are pressing for a criminal investigation into the sinking of the ferry, said three separate sets of tests had been carried out on metal fragments recovered from the wreck by divers. He said that distortion in the metal showed there had been an explosion.

An official report in 1997 made no mention of an explosion. It said the ship's bow door, which had been missing a bolt, had been torn off in heavy seas.

"To us, it's now clear without a doubt that this hole has been caused by a detonation. There is no other possibility"

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Bomb blamed for sinking of the 'Estonia'?

First published at www.independent.co.uk 001217

According to the shipyard's own investigation, nine survivors – all of whom were in different parts of the ship – heard a loud bang at about 1am, just before the ship sank.

Jutta Rabe, a German television producer who organised the dive to collect the samples, said: "The Swedish shipping administration and the president of the Estonia shipping line had described bomb threats to the ship to journalists just after it sank.

"A young Estonian shipping cadet, Paavo Pruul, who was on watch on the training ship Linda in Tallinn harbour, heard radio messages between the harbour master and the Estonia," she said. "They discussed a bomb search and how they had been unable to find anything."
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Ms Rabe and Greg Bemis, an American millionaire, offered to organise a $200,000 dive on the Estonia in search of new evidence.

Ms Rabe hopes that the results of her investigation – as well as the tests on the metal samples by the Material Testing Laboratory of the State of Brandenburg, the DN Institute for Materials Testing and Material Engineering in Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany, and the Southwest Research institute in San Antonio, Texas – will force a reopening of the inquiry.

Although the wreck is in international waters, the Swedish, Estonian and Finnish governments have banned dives at the site. Sweden has issued arrest warrants for Ms Rabe and Mr Bemis. Brian Braidwood, a former Royal Navy officer, diver and explosives expert, said the laboratory results "provide indisputable proof that the samples were exposed to the effects of an explosion." Mr Braidwood now works for the insurance and shipping industry and was retained by Meyer Werft. He says the explosion must have been deliberate and that it happened just before the ship sank.

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