Sinking of the MS Estonia: What happened in the Baltic Sea?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
- It is one of the worst shipping disasters of all time - and one of the most mysterious. On September 28, 1994, the car ferry MS Estonia sank in the middle of the Baltic Sea. The reasons for the tragedy with 852 deaths have not yet been fully explained. What happened on the high seas that night 30 years ago? A journey to the place where the Estonia set sail - and where it should have arrived.
A film by Matthias Schwarzer and Noah Matzat.
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Many thanks to the TH-camr @caljucotcas, whose Estonia animation I was allowed to use in the video. You can find his original video here:
• Sinking of the MS Estonia
The image sources for the collage in the thumbnail are: Vrak Museum Stockholm (Estonia photo), Accident Investigation Board Finland (life raft), Expressen and Daily Express (newspaper clippings).
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Correction:
In the introduction I say that the ferry left Tallinn on September 28th. In fact, it did so on September 27th and then sank during the night, on September 28th, 1994.
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Sources for the video:
"Estonia" sinking: A ferry becomes a plaything of the waves (NDR, German):
www.ndr.de/ges...
Sinking of the Estonia: A 15,000 ton secret (Profil.at, German):
www.profil.at/...
The disappeared from Utö (Spiegel, German):
www.spiegel.de...
The mystery of Europe's worst shipping disaster since 1945 (Welt, German):
www.welt.de/ge...
Quotes from survivors (Deutschlandfunk, German):
www.deutschlan...
Explosions on board? Spiegel report from 2001 (German):
www.spiegel.de...
Theories about the Estonia (NDR, German):
www.ndr.de/ges...
The Meyer shipyard denies design errors (German):
www.meyerwerft...
TUHH investigation (German):
www.tuhh.de/ss...
Current interim report on Estonia disaster:
safety4sea.com...
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Or become a channel member on TH-cam:
/ @matthiasschwarzer
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Intro song:
MÆT - Start Again
Music:
Epidemic Sound
#msestonia #estonia #sweden #shipwreck #sinking #shippingaccident #tallinn #stockholm
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amazing work! thank You for the shout-out!
Thank you too! 🙂
This accident got me to be pretty scare of roll-on/roll-off ferry, whenever I got on one, I always make sure to find where is life raft and sit in the top deck if I can. They don't close the doors on some ferry lines in my country, ship just cross the sea with doors wide open, as most of the time, Gulf of Thailand is mostly calm, but still, I find this to be very reckless.
there is a huge hole in the wreck....I mean.... pretty obvious it wasnt just a visor , for some reason tho they dont want to investigate it or countries dont want to work with eachother, I travel to stockholm all the time...have done this since child cause half of my famnily lives in sweden ...other half in estonia and they always close the doors...at least I never feared that ship is going to sink :D
The thing that made it a nightmare was when the ship listed, hallways became cliff, stairwell became maze, people trapped had no ways to escape without getting in deadly cold water.
It's very easy for people who don't remember this terrible accident to say let's move on and that's it. I remember that day very well and I can never say let's just move on and leave it at that. Yes, we can't bring back those drowned people, but the people who escaped or whose dear loved ones perished can't forget it for the rest of their lives. I think they should retain the right to find out what happened...
@@iirishele5787 It was a true national trauma in Sweden, one of the largest ever after the world wars. We must not forget. It must never happen again.
@@TheJonathanNewton 🥀😥🙏
I liked the explanation at the end explaining that this video is part of a series tied to a road trip. Looking forward to the next one.
One of the worst ship disasters ever…
Nice video! Note: "bow" (the front of a ship) rhymes with "how". English pronunciation is a nightmare...
Damn. 😵💫 Thanks for the info and correction.
4:08 2 murders took place in Viking Sally, 1986 and 1987.
1987 victim was West German citizen and 1986 victim was Finnish.
Yeah, the 1986 murder was solved, but the 1987 case is still open. A Danish citizen was charged for it a few years ago, but it did not hold up in court.
And apparently, a man was also caught dumping his wife's body off the ship, but the murder itself had occurred on land.
I don't understand why they didn't salvage the ship, it's only 90 meters deep. no, we're going to bury the ship with stones and not get to the bottom of what happened, so you wonder what it is they don't want us to know.
The ship is huge. It's made from steel and it's full of water. It weights so much that even if there was some apparatus that could lift it, it's impossible to get it to the surface in one piece. It would break appart. It's long way away from any dock. How would they transport it? It's not going to float. And why? We know where it is and we know why it sank. People can dive there if they need to (and apparently they do and in the process get new investigations started and waste millions of taxpayers money).
Also: the ship is a grave for over 700 people. It's not some toy that can just be picked up from the bottom of a pool for someone's ammusement. There are people's remains inside. If one would try to get it back to surface, what would they do with all the parts that used to be someone's loved one?
@@GaviaArctica382 now it is too late to be able to lift it and many wanted their relatives back + know the truth that the government wants to keep behind the residents.
They recovered the Kursk. They could have recovered her, still could. They would recover the bones. With DNA they would be able to ID many.
@@thereissomecoolstuff The Kursk was a lot smaller than this huge ship.
And why, it lays there on the bottom.
New build ships don't have visor bows any more...
The are much saver now.
They load the ship from behind now...
@@jinnygaatjenietaan306 this ship isn’t that HUGE. They raised the Sewell. Same approximate size in Korea. Then fired the entire coast guard and President of Korea over killing all the kids. They could get her up. Costa Concordia was bigger as well.
The problem with some of the people who believe in these bomb and submarine theories is that they will never believe the explanations that won't comply with their beliefs. I am from Estonia myself and I remember the disaster. I was 7 years old at the time but still. I am an engineer now and granted I'm not a maritime engineer but I still have quite good understanding of physics. The fact is that the only way to make a ship like that capsize as fast as she did is to mess up its balance. And the easiest way to do that is to flood the car deck which was higher than the waterline. The quickest way for water to flood the car deck is through the loading doors either from the bow or aft doors since these are already huge gaping holes in the hull. Any holes below the waterline would have improved the balance and it would have started sinking pretty much at even keel and would not have capsized in short minutes. It might and probably would have eventually but not in minutes. This is all basic physics and had been sadly demonstrated before in the case of MS Herald of Free Enterprise in 1987. We can speculate how and why exactly the bow visor failed but the most logical main reason for the sinking remains that the visor failed and car deck flooded.
Great work with the video! Also there is another MS Estonia memorial but in Hiiumaa, Tahkuna memorial, it's a pendulum bronze bell and also a closest point in Estonia to the sinking location of MS Estonia. I recomend to visit this place.
Amazing work, love the work you put in to these video's, Hope you come to New Zealand some day and do some of our historical stories 😁
This is the modern Day Titanic
Not many survived
Ferry/ship accidents really terrify me. In Asia, and especially in the Philippines and Indonesia, they happen much too frequently. I can't imagine how terrifying the sea is at night.
Quite a lot of controversial ferry accidents in Scandinavia. Estonia, Scandinavia star, ss københavn, m/s Skagerak, kjøbenhavn, mv Wilhelm gustloff, Goya etc.
It wasn't only the mass of water ingressing the car deck, undoubtedly still begin huge. As the car deck was basically one open space, even small forces can lead to the water moving around (the free surface effect). This is what eventually lead to the initial list, which with more water coming in became a runaway process getting worse and worse.
For all who cares, our accident investigation bureau(OTKES) has relesead the whole report, with all the photos and interviews down to build of the ship .
30 years ago at this morning my mother woke me up. this was only thing she said. estonia sunk. i was 11 at the time. noone close to us died there. yet, she found that somehow so bad to wake me up for that. i can't remember anything from tv or elsewhere. tho i remember collapse of soviet union at 1991 perfectly. but i do remember that day now
Elinor from Shipwreck Sunday covered this wreck today if you’d like another perspective. Her channel is very good. Highly detailed.
IMO it was not captain who called mayday.
2nd & 3rd Officers, which is pretty much standard on all vessels.
Hello mathias this reminds me of the herald of free enterprise great video
Imoprtant video. Very forgotten accident.
What are you zinking about?
Its time to left ship and fallen victims alone and in peace. You cant bring them back. Its time to move on. Military equipment transport nowadays in ferryes to, its not something new and not cause of accident. Clearly poor maintaining, bad loading, center of gravity is off. And Coincidences of circumstances it just happent, visor failed. Visor experience lot of stress, specialy in rough waves. And if center of gravity is off, then it can happen.
Bullshit. Visor is not preventing the water coming inside. Ramp is for that. AND the ramp is high above water. Second, ramp can be opened only by humans. Waves can not do it any ways.
Thanks, it's a nice summary of the accident and the investigations. Interestingly I don't remember the accident. I was 5 years and 9 months old. Many of my classmates remember the evening that they saw the news (our most important TV news ran at 9PM every day).
It's really hard to be sure what happened so many years ago, especially as we don't have video evidence. Sometimes I think that people should make peace with what has happened. It has been 30 years, plenty of time to grieve. For your own sanity, let it go, don't live in the past.
A small grammatical suggestion: in Estonian it's correct to say "Mis juhtus LäänemereL". It was a ship, it sailed ON the sea, not in the sea.
Thanks for the correction. I changed the title. :)
I was 7 years old and was told at school that there were students who had lost their parents when we were on break. i only saw pictures in the magazine near the stove.
Well covered thanks 😢
Inside job 😃😃😃
Big in Japan < Tallin Estonia
The problem remains that no expert can answer from the Swedish/Finnish maritime commission about why MS Estonia took in water under the car tires? There are several things that are also very scary about this case! It emerged in 2004 that Estonia was transporting military equipment under the Swedish flag, which was tried to be blacked out. Then there are a number of witnesses who survived Estonia who heard loud bangs on the boat, and screeching noises that were loud for several minutes before estonia start to sink. Is there quite a lot of information that is strange? which the ocean commission has tried to obscure.
The official investigation was full of total lies. I am the lecturer on ship mechanics in Estonian Naval School and I know something.
The visor can be lift and removed BUT the visor is NOT connected with the front ramp and the ramp is holding the water outside, not visor. Ramp can be opened ONLY by humans and no way some waves can open the ramp. The ramp was actually pretty much closed during the disaster but it was a little bit open, aside. NOT totally open like the official report says -- it was a total lie.
More gaps. The bridge was almost totally silent during the disaster. Absence of pan pan signal at the beginning of the troubles was very strange. No signal for exit the passangers. Very strange. Official report does not mention this. Were officers dead, killed, executed?
You say bow ramp was never fully open, funny that they found a railing from a part of the bow ramp about half a kilometer from the wreck, no signs of sabotage. This is strong evidence that the visor tore the ramp fully open. Official report still stands up to critical scrutiny and with the new investigations, not a single point has emerged why the official report should be questioned
@luigifer973 all the witnesses who saw and even climbed down the ramp saw the ramp was closed , ALL the divers saw the ramp was closed.
Do you understand how the ramp is working? It is opened and closed with the hydraulic system which needs electric power to work at all. It does NOT open without the power, there is no mechanism for free opening. The same hydraulic system holds the ramp closed. Someone has to push the button to switch on the electric power to open the ramp. Understand? No other power can open the ramp otherwise than cutting all the hings and links. Understand?
And otherwise, if the ramp was open during the sinking, then it was just impossible to close it without electric power.
Some years ago the divers discovered that the ramp was dropped off. It was just CUT off by someone, by some unknown specialists. The can not be other reason.
@@luigifer973@luigifer973 all the witnesses who saw and even climbed down the ramp say the ramp was closed , ALL the divers saw the ramp was closed.
Do you understand how the ramp is working? It is opened and closed with the hydraulic system which needs electric power to work at all. It does NOT open without the power, there is no mechanism for free opening. The same hydraulic system holds the ramp closed. Someone has to push the button to switch on the electric power to open the ramp. Understand? No other power can open the ramp otherwise than cutting all the hings and links. Understand?
And otherwise, if the ramp was open during the sinking, then it was just impossible to close it without electric power.
Some years ago the divers discovered that the ramp was dropped off. It was just CUT off by someone, by some unknown specialists. The can not be other reason.
You can claim whatever you want on internet, but you should also provide sources with claims like that. If you dont need the visor to keep water out, why even bother with it? That alone makes your claim very questionable.
On the system about ramp itself, so you claim that with the "default" position ramp is closed? Meaning that the hydraulic sylinders are also closed, not extended. Otherwise simply losing hydraulic pressure would be enough to open the ramp. Especially in the rough seas.
The design of the ramp and the visor made it impossible for the visor to fall off without influencing the ramp. It was a flawed design. The ramp reached higher than the top of the bow of the ship and was situated inside special ramp housing built inside the visor. When the visor hinges failed then the last thing for it to cling on to was the ramp. I don’t know for sure but I guess the ramps hydraulic system was not designed with the entire 64 ton visor hanging on to it. At some point hydraulic actuators failed and at that point the ramp held on only by its hinges. I think it is entirely possible that during the sinking the ramp could have been slammed shut by waves.
Mayday was sent by unknown crew members. It was said that they were the helmsmen/navigators but they did not speak english well and they did not know the location of the ship at once and they had to check it from the map. The navigators should know the location of ship every minute.
@@marguskiis7711 they had a blackout, stopping their radar from working.
they had a blackout. thats why they couldnt see the location
@@dlsgrowyt2208 the navigators were drawing the route of ship into special route map before the journey and were marking the location of ship regular basis during the travel too. Before the ectis and gps days it was needed to know where are you if needed. All the ship pro crew knew it and thats why they knew where to find the information. But navigators should know the location before they make the radio call. The radio call came very very late. The ship had been in trouble for 20 minutes already. So, it is clear the mayday was not made by bridge crew. The bridge should have to make the pan pan call at once when they slowed down.
@@marguskiis7711 it did come from the bridge tho, we know who the radio operator was (i have forgotten his name). the call was late because they didnt know what was happening before, they assumed the ship was listing due to the wind and cargo. bxuz of the Estonias extended superstructure u couldnt see the front was missing. so to fix the list they eventually turned the ship right towards the waves, which IF it was the wind wouldve fixed the list. but it just allowed more water on
@@dlsgrowyt2208 You don`t know anything about the marine radio rules, I see. Such a big ship should make the warrant call AT ONCE any major problem, which makes the ship slow down or stop, occurs. Just to warn other ships not to crash in. It is called pan pan message. Estonia started to slow down a way before 1 and stopped at 1 o`clock and started to tilt fast. It was the last minute to pan pan, or it was actually the time for mayday. The two other ships were coming really close, within 10 nm btw. But no pan pan and the mayday came at 1.22 when Estonia wa sideways and disaster was total.
At 1 o`clock even the surviving mechanics knew that the ship is in deep trouble and started to leave their rooms to escape. But they were not in the bridge.