The Commission of Inquiry into the circumstances of the disaster considered that the strange noises were caused by the breaking of the so-called “Atlantic lock”, which locks the visor to the hull. When they break, the front gates of the ship are torn down and water quickly enters the ship. The generators stop and the ship drifts while sinking. According to several Swedish shipping experts, such a course of events is not technically possible. It is also rejected by shipbuilding specialists at the University of Strathclyde, who emphasize that this type of ferry overturns in an emergency and continues to float upwards. This is exactly what happened to the Polish ferry Jan Hewelius, which crashed on January 14, 1993 during a hurricane in the Baltic Sea. A similar accident occurred with this ferry, but it did not immediately sink and swayed in the waves for another 24 hours with the wedge up. The Herald of Free Enterprise crashed near Zeebrugge in a situation where someone had not closed the front visor and water began to flow rapidly on the ship’s lower deck. However, there was a shoal at the scene of the accident and the ship remained tilted to the side. The second oddity is that Estonia regained its vertical position after the first impact, which means that the water had not yet broken into the lower deck at that time, only stabilizing. The height of the thresholds is 380 mm and gigantic water access in the hull is possible only when the ship is tilted at a 45 degree angle.
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Hole below water level
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The officially offered version is technically possible only if the ship also detects a leak below the water level. Only then can such a large flow of water form on the lower deck. The opening of the hydraulic door is also to blame, but there is no mention of this in the commission’s report.
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Was the ship in good condition? But did the Commission find it perfect? No, many drivers who regularly traveled with it from Tallinn to Stockholm, carrying cargo, have shown that the bow visor has never completely completed the hull. Their crew “fixed” them with rags and old mattresses, which can be seen even in the wreck underwater filmed.
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But on the other hand, Swedish and Finnish experts point out that the frontal, oncoming waves cannot tear the bow of the ship. That is not possible. This is evidenced by the experience of the Diana II storm of a similar design on the same night that Jan Hewelius crashed. The wind strength at that time was about 50 m / s, but the front visor withstood the waves without any problems. This was also proved by the shipbuilder Meyerwerft, who experimentally demonstrated that the switch withstands heavy shocks, but worn hinges could cause problems.
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Missing people and issues
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The main character in this story is the missing captain Avo Pihts, whose crew members have allegedly seen him evacuating in a lifeboat. His name is not on the list of rescued and as if seven people have disappeared from the list of rescued persons. Estonian crew members claim to have even seen the captain in a TV report showing the rescued passengers. Similar stories can be heard about other members of the Estonian crew, but there is no evidence for these versions.
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