Ship disaster
Prosecutor’s Office: “Estonia” case is closed
The “Estonia” sank off the Finnish southern coast in 1994 on its way from Tallinn to Stockholm. photo
© epa/dpa
852 people died when the “Estonia” sank off the southern coast of Finland on its way from Tallinn to Stockholm in 1994. Now, almost 30 years later, the case is closed for the prosecution.
The “Estonia” sank off the southern coast of Finland in September 1994 with 989 people on board on its way from Tallinn to Stockholm. 852 people died, 137 survived. It was the largest shipping disaster in post-war European history. According to the official investigation report from 1997, the ferry’s torn off bow visor was the cause of the sinking. But doubts about this were repeatedly expressed.
In September 2019, a Swedish film team lowered a diving robot to the wreckage for a documentary. Among other things, they discovered a hole in the ship’s hull that was several meters large and previously unknown. This ultimately prompted the authorities to initiate new investigations.
Prosecutor Karolina Wieslander said these investigations had revealed no evidence that a crime had been committed. Wieslander also ruled out a collision with another ship or an explosion in the bow of the “Estonia”.