Sunken ferry investigation: official report still holds

By JARI TANNER
Associated Press

HELSINKI (AP) — The Estonian and Swedish accident investigation boards say a research expedition earlier this year to the wreck of a ferry that sank into the Baltic Sea over 27 years ago hasn’t provided new evidence contradicting the official accident investigation report. In one of Europe’s deadliest peacetime maritime disasters, the M/S Estonia sank in rough weather in the Baltic Sea on Sept. 28, 1994, killing 852 people. Presenting preliminary results of a July dive, investigators said the wreck has a hole about 22 meters long and four meters high, but they believe it was caused by rocks on the seabed after the ship had sunk. The 1997 investigation concluded that the ferry sank when its bow door locks failed.