Cloud Strife
Established Member
- Joined
- 25 Feb 2014
- Messages
- 1,812
I'm surprised that this hasn't been discussed here, so in light of the most recent news, I thought I'd start a thread about it.
For the unaware, MS Estonia was a cruiseferry that sank in the Baltic Sea in 1994 when sailing from Tallinn to Stockholm. 852 lost their lives that night, and the official report claimed that the casualty was a result of the visor being torn off at sea. The front visor was connected directly to the bow doors, and the ferry was to have sank after the car deck was flooded. The shipbuilder was blamed for the disaster.
The official report however simply cannot be trusted. The alternative (and very detailed) report by the shipbuilder found numerous inconsistencies compared to the official report, and I really recommend reading the alternative report if you want to understand what actually happened that night. The update from 2006 also clearly points at some external event happening that was at least partially responsible for the casualty.
A few days ago, a documentary was broadcast in Sweden which revealed that a hole in fact does exist where the German shipbuilders speculated it would be. There's a very good interview with a former Estonian state prosecutor and head of a government commission on the topic. While conspiracy theories are always prevalent around disasters - in this case, the main two theories: that weapons were smuggled onboard MS Estonia and that the ship has a large hole in the hull have now both been confirmed beyond any doubt.
The haunting distress radio traffic that night is also worth a listen.
If anyone has any questions, I can do my best to answer them.
For the unaware, MS Estonia was a cruiseferry that sank in the Baltic Sea in 1994 when sailing from Tallinn to Stockholm. 852 lost their lives that night, and the official report claimed that the casualty was a result of the visor being torn off at sea. The front visor was connected directly to the bow doors, and the ferry was to have sank after the car deck was flooded. The shipbuilder was blamed for the disaster.
The official report however simply cannot be trusted. The alternative (and very detailed) report by the shipbuilder found numerous inconsistencies compared to the official report, and I really recommend reading the alternative report if you want to understand what actually happened that night. The update from 2006 also clearly points at some external event happening that was at least partially responsible for the casualty.
A few days ago, a documentary was broadcast in Sweden which revealed that a hole in fact does exist where the German shipbuilders speculated it would be. There's a very good interview with a former Estonian state prosecutor and head of a government commission on the topic. While conspiracy theories are always prevalent around disasters - in this case, the main two theories: that weapons were smuggled onboard MS Estonia and that the ship has a large hole in the hull have now both been confirmed beyond any doubt.
The haunting distress radio traffic that night is also worth a listen.
If anyone has any questions, I can do my best to answer them.