30 years have passed since the Estonia ferry disaster - 852 people drowned in less than one hour - left survivors and families speculating for decades
Thank you for choosing Automatic Translation. Currently we are offering translations from English into French and German, with more translation languages to be added in the near future. Please be aware that these translations are generated by a third party AI software service. While we have found that the translations are mostly correct, they may not be perfect in every case. To ensure the information you read is correct, please refer to the original article in English. If you find an error in a translation which you would like to bring to our attention, it would help us greatly if you let us know. We can correct any text or section, once we are aware of it. Please do not hesitate to contact our webmaster to let us know of any translation errors.
The passenger ferry Estonia sank in the Baltic Sea on the night of September 28, 1994. The ferry had left the port of Tallinn the evening before but capsized less than halfway to Stockholm and was completely submerged in less than one hour.
Illustration Credit: Above: The detached bow of the Estonia. Photo by: By Anneli Karlsson . Wikipedia Commons Licence.
All photos are Wikipedia Commons Licenses.
The M/S Estonia ferry, set off from Tallinn, Estonia, on September 27, 1994, en route to Stockholm, Sweden. Although the weather forecast predicted stormy seas, it was not considered unusual or particularly alarming.
501 victims, more than half of the passengers, were Swedish, according to an article on SVT.se.
852 people died in the disaster.
Only 137 people were rescued and brought to safety.
The table to the right shows the number of victims and survivors listed by nationality.
*Source: Wikipedia
The bow visir - the door where cars would roll on and off - detached and drenched the car decks rapidly
The capsizing of M/S Estonia has been called one of Europe’s worst maritime disasters ever during peace time.
The international accident investigation commission concluded that the fastenings and locks on Estonia’s bow visor were undersized. (See the photo above)
When the bow visor detached, large amounts of water flooded the car decks, causing the ship to capsize.
The disaster led to significant changes in ferry safety regulations.
The International Maritime Organization mandated stronger bow visors, additional watertight bulkheads, and enhanced drainage systems to prevent water from flooding the car decks in the event of a similar failure, according to EstoniaWorld.com.
Heard a loud metallic bang
At 1:22 AM, the passenger ferry M/S Estonia sends out its first distress call. Less than one hour later, the ship is completely submerged.
In the cold Baltic Sea, 852 people perished, making the Estonia disaster an international tragedy.
A reconstruction of the capsizing of Estonia from the original 1994 investigation report.
Just before 1:00 AM, several passengers and crew members heard a loud metallic bang coming from the bow of the Estonia.
What no one knew is that the bow visor had detached, allowing water to rush onto the car deck.
M/S Estonia was a large ship. The illustration above shows the ferry in relation to a passenger airplane.
By original Yzmo - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26457330
From perfect calm to complete chaos in seconds
The ship started capsizing so quickly that people were thrown against the walls, which caused heavy injures.
"In a matter of seconds, everything turned into total chaos," recalls survivor Kent Härstedt.
Eight hours later, the last survivor is rescued from the water. Only 137 of the 989 people aboard survive the Estonia disaster.
Speculations about explosions onboard
Survivors, relatives, and other concerned individuals have since demanded further investigation into the rapid sinking of the Estonia.
During the initial dives at the site in the 1990s, the bow visor was found separated from the ship, lying at a distance from the rest of the wreck, writes the Maritime Executive.
It was recovered, photographed, and later scrapped. In a widely-viewed report by the news outlet Fokus Estonia, demolition experts suggested that the photographs of the now-destroyed bow visor showed damage patterns consistent only with an explosion.
However, a joint Estonian, Finnish, and Swedish report released in 2023 disputed these controversial claims, reaffirming the original conclusion that the bow visor failed due to mechanical fatigue.
Swedish prosecutors have since accepted this finding and declined to reopen the case, citing insufficient evidence to support any alternative explanation.
According to the official report, the visor’s locks were incapable of withstanding the pressure from the waves. Once the visor broke off, water flooded the ship’s car deck, destabilising the vessel and causing it to sink rapidly.
Below: A photo of Estonia when she sailed as the Silja Star in 1991. Photo by Janne Ranta.
A disaster waiting to happen?
30 years later, the tragedy remains shrouded in conspiracy theories, allegations of a cover-up, and claims of key unanswered questions, Estonian World wrote on September 28, 2024, 30 years on the day since the ferry sank.
The site says that Tauri Roosipuu, a senior investigator of maritime accidents, explained to Estonian online portal Delfi that “the MS Estonia’s visor was a disaster waiting to happen.”
In 2020, a Swedish documentary reignited controversy surrounding the MS Estonia disaster by claiming to have discovered a large hole in the hull, leading to speculation that the ferry might have been struck by an external object, such as a submarine or an explosion.
The footage, showing outwardly bent steel, shocked Estonia, Finland, and Sweden, sparking theories of a possible cover-up or military cargo involvement.
However, maritime experts pointed out that the documentary failed to show the seabed, which is covered with rocks that could have caused the damage when the wreck settled.