M / S Estonia today: Sweden has no daily coverage of the wreck site, Germany reiterates that it does not want to sign gravfrid agreement – and sport divers reported stealing things from the wreck.
20 years after Sweden’s biggest casualty of modern times, the night of 28 September 1994, the rest in silence Estonia on the Baltic seabed.
It is in any case the official version.
But the question is what is really happening on the wreck site. Author Anders Jallai state that in fact sport divers made about 30 dives in Estonia, and several of them have picked themselves with objects as souvenirs. Jallai refers to divers he has spoken with. Among other things, he says that a Swedish participated in a German diving expedition.
At the same time protected the wreck of gravfrid rules several Baltic nations signed.
Over the years, several high-profile dives took place in Estonia.
1995, hours before the Swedish gravfrid Act came into force, appeared Swede Peter Barasinski down in an attempt to salvage his deceased wife Caritas body. It was done in collaboration with the German journalist Jutta Rabe, who later arranged dykexpeditioner years 2000 and 2001.
Sweden currently has no daily monitoring of the vessel. Sea region is not even an issue of the Swedish Coast Guard database.
Instead of guarding the tomb of earth mostly a Finnish responsibility. The Coast Guard is the military in Finland daily via radar monitors dykförbudet.
– But we get indications that there is some form of activity, then Swedish and Finnish coast guard air interact. We have daily co. When necessary, we also go there by ship. Both the Swedish and Finnish authorities are able to document what is going on but our ability to intervene directly is limited, says Dan Thorell, Head of Department within the Coast Guard.
Estonia is about 80 meters deep, in a lerbädd on the Finnish continental shelf between Utö Finnish and Estonian island of Hiiumaa, outside the Gulf – at international, free water.
The Swedish Act on gravfrid, created in 1995, gives only Swedish authorities to take action against its own citizens. The same applies to Finland and Estonia, and Latvia, Lithuania, Denmark, Poland – and the UK, which over the years have ratified the Convention.
The UK of – that have no Baltic Coasts – ratified the agreement, aroused amazement 2005, and two Britons were on board, one of whom died.
If new dives occurred in Estonia since 2001, they have done so, in secret. Without detection by the authorities.
One explanation may be that scuba divers often use the RIB that are not visible in the Finnish radar, because they disappear into the general “vågklustret” according to Anders Jallai and dykexperten Jan Jacobsson, CEO of Subsea diving service company OPD. The boats drop of divers, leaving a buoy in the water and pick them up later.
Sami Järvenpää, Director of the Finnish military coast guard western disktrikt in Turku, said Ny Teknik that there has been dykincidenter then “Rabe-case.”
“We have registered the last incidents from the Estonia wreck site 2000-2001, “he wrote in the email. Finland claims to have full control.
“Of course, we observe the place all the time, check if someone is there (why and who), and we will inform the country that citizens are coming from, “says Sami Järvenpää.
Lars-Erik Langman, Swedish Coast Guard Chief of Staff for the North East region closest to the crash site, was also not aware of any violations gravfrid since 2001.
– Finland’s answer to the question of the violation at the wreckage consistent with my picture after checking diaries at the command center and had a conversation with our flight operations, he says.
852 people traveled with the ship perished. Of the 552 Swedes survived 51, 40 were found dead, while 461 are missing.
government decided in 1996 to cover over Estonia with concrete, stone and sand. On 19 May the same year began the Norwegian ship Tertnes to dump 10,000 tons of stone at the crash site. Although large quantities of sand (approximately 400 000 cubic meters) must have been poured out. But the work was stopped abruptly by the government on June 19. Not only the massive popular protests played a role in the decision. It happened things on the seabed.
Jan Laue, a German professor who worked on behalf of the so-called German expert group, noted in 2000 a large change in the position of the wreck over the sinking. The bow was now ten feet deeper than the stern. It started over the coverage likely caused landslides bottom.
In what state is the wreck today – after 20 years in the brackish Baltic Sea water – is unclear. The Administration has not done any testing, says Daniel Lindblad, press officer for the agency.
According to the International Commission of Inquiry JAIC (The Joint Accident Investigation Commission ) were attributed to the bow visor was torn off in the hard weather, car ramp opened and lots of water flowed in through car / cargo deck.
Estonia was built by the German shipyard Meyer in Papenburg shipyard in 1980 was named as the only party that had any responsibility in the sinking. But company representatives questioned early in the official accident description, and appointed its own German experts.
Despite several attempts by the Swedish side, Germany has so far not wanted to write on gravfrid Convention. German foreign ministry said last week, journalists at German state NDR (Norddeutscher Rundfunk) that it does not currently harbor any plans of signing.
The Federal Government believes, experience new technologies, it is the UN Maritime Organization, IMO, something to settle a protection agreement. In addition, we believe that a ratification “would hamper future investigations of the cause of accident, because gravfrid agreement does not contain exceptions for investigations.”
The the Paris process, where more than 1,300 families of the deceased sued the French classification society Bureau Veritas, Meyer shipyard and the Swedish Maritime Administration in 1996 as jointly liable for the M / S Estonia, has stalled.
Bertil Calamnius, as in the days coming out of the book what happened to Estonia ?, and Lennart Berglund are two of the families. Both have long fought for a new accident investigation – and they have not given up.
One of the survivors, S-parliamentarian Kent Härstedt , has recently asked the Parliamentary Research Service to investigate which factors dykförbudet not apply.
Under the law, exceptions may be made for “activities intends to cover or protect the wreck or to prevent pollution of the marine environment. “
From the wreckage removed Finnish authorities in 1996 a total of 230 -250 cubic meters of various oils, according to Lars Langman. All tanks were not empty, but the Coast Guard has so far not received any indication of leaks.
Swedish governments, which manage gravfrid Convention says However, ever-no to an underwater inspection of the wreckage.
