Nye photo surveys to document Estonia’s wreckage

Studies of the wreck of the passenger ferry “Estonia” on the bottom of the Baltic Sea will resume in a few weeks.

The purpose of the investigations is to document the wreck – not to make new findings.Nye. This was announced by the Swedish State Accident Commission (SHK) on Sunday.

The studies will be conducted by the Swedish company Ocean Discovery in collaboration with the Danish company JD-Contractor.

Both the Swedish and Estonian Accident Investigation Board will help to lead and manage the investigations.

For June, the passenger ferry is to be examined using photogrammetry.

“It involves taking many photographs, which you put together into a three-dimensional image.«

“This gives you a good overview, you can zoom in and out, and you can twist and turn the image in a computer so you can see everything that is possible,” says Acting Director General of SHK Jonas Bäckstrand.

He said there will also be several investigations into the wreck and its surroundings over the course of the year. However, the timing of these studies is not yet clear.

It is primarily the Estonian authorities who will lead the investigations.

The “Estonia”, which was supposed to sail from Tallinn to Stockholm, sank in the early morning hours of 28. september 1994.

137 people survived, while 852 died in one of the worst maritime accidents of the 20th century. century.

It has previously been decided not to salvage the wreck, which still lies on the bottom of the Baltic Sea.

After the tragedy, the Accident Commission determined that it was a loose bow gate that was the cause of the ship sinking.

However, it has been a mystery to many how the ferry could sink in less than an hour.

Survivors and relatives of the victims of the accident have been fighting for decades for a more thorough investigation into the incident.

When the upcoming studies are completed, it will be a few more months before the material is analyzed and a result can be presented.

/ ritzau/TT