+- Rogue-Nation Discussion Board (https://rogue-nation.com/mybb)
+-- Forum: Controversy and Debate (https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/forumdisplay.php?fid=52)
+--- Forum: Hot Button Issues (https://rogue-nation.com/mybb/forumdisplay.php?fid=58)
+--- Thread: Why did Estonia sink (/showthread.php?tid=1039)
Why did Estonia sink - Darkness in soul - 07-23-2023
This is a news article from Sweden. I have been following this story for many years
Estonia ramp salvaged
Published 22 July 2023 at 08.47
INSIDE. Since Wednesday, the Swedish Accident Investigation Board and its Finnish and Estonian sister authorities have been at the wreck of the MS Estonia to salvage the ship's controversial boarding ramp. It is the ramp that came loose, swam away a bit and settled over a suspected blast in the bow after the Estonia was filmed by journalist Henrik Evertsson in 2019.
The Estonia disaster
Estonia's bow ramp to be salvaged
Court of Appeal increases sentences for Estonia whistleblowers
Defence Forces: We don't know what we smuggled on Estonia
Prosecutor demands tougher sentences for Estonia whistleblowers
Ingvar Carlsson: Time to tell if there was military material on the Estonia when she sank
Show all
© SHK
The railings of the then closed boarding ramp were found shortly after the accident - outside the wreck.
Henrik Evertsson's 2019 photos revealed another major damage - in the ship's side of the Estonia - which, after being broadcast in the 2020 TV documentary 'Estonia - the find that changes everything', prompted the governments of Estonia, Sweden and Finland to resume investigations of the wreck.
The idea was to investigate the new hole in the side of the ship revealed by Mr Evertsson and to investigate a damage in the bow - at the bow ramp - documented by German journalist Jutta Rabe and American contractor Greg Bemis back in 2000.
Several metallurgical analyses of the damage in the bow from 2000 showed that it bore traces of explosives, and in 2021 an analysis of the Estonia's bow visor, which was salvaged in 1994, showed that this part of the ship had also been subjected to blasting or other intense heating.
However, once the authorities dived down to the Estonia in 2021, it turned out that the ferry's bow ramp had come loose at some point after journalist Henrik Evertsson filmed the ramp in its upright position in 2019.
The ramp had not only fallen off the ship but also swam away a bit - it is unclear how - and settled just above the hole in the ship's bow discovered by Greg Bemis and Jutta Rabe in 2000, but omitted by the international investigators in the final report released by the Swedish Accident Investigation Board and its Estonian and Finnish sister authorities in 1997. The authorities were therefore unable to access the area when they investigated themselves in the new dives in 2021.
"Accessing that area for detailed investigation would require a camera to come between the ramp and the affected area," Jörgen Zachau, accident investigator and head of investigation at the Swedish Accident Investigation Board, wrote in an email to Fria Tider at the time.
In 2022, Sweden, Finland and Estonia contributed €2.5 million to finance the recovery of the ramp.
Among other things, the authorities wanted to examine previously photographed damage to the ramp in the form of a triangle that was probably formed when the ramp hit the forecourt deck before it - as claimed in the final report - fell off at the surface.
- This strengthens the hypothesis of how the sinking occurred, according to TT.
But there is also damage that points in another direction. For example, the front part of the ramp's left-hand railing has been found outside the ship, even when the ramp was closed. SKL has stated that these are the Estonia's railings, but has not attempted to explain how they could be outside the ship when they were detached from a closed bow ramp.
Several critics, including former MP Lars Ångström (MP), have argued that the railings show that someone opened the ramp after the sinking of the Estonia, entered the car deck (which is behind the ramp), and then closed the ramp behind them. According to him, the railings must have been cut away because they were bent and prevented the ramp from closing.
Neither the Armed Forces, the Accident Commission nor SKL have attempted to explain how the railings could have ended up outside the ship when the ramp was closed.
However, an explanation has been provided by the YouTube account Estoniaveckan, which is officially run by a socially engaged immigrant but in practice tends to launch various theories that are as flattering as possible to Swedish authorities. According to Estoniaveckan, the ramp may have opened and released the railings on the bottom when the ship sank, and the ramp then closed by itself when the ship hit the bottom.
In other words, the 10-tonne ramp, built in 1980, is a lively and mobile 43-year-old. It remains to be seen whether this part of the ship, which seems to be constantly ready to move up, down and sideways under its own power, will still be there when the authorities salvage it this week. Fria Tider is following the operation and will report back.
https://www.friatider.se/simkunnig-estonia-ramp-bargas
Translated with DeepL