Ms Estonia Rescue

[Malka Sedano]

MSEstonia sank on Wednesday, 28 September 1994, between about 00:50 and 01:50 (UTC+2) as the ship was crossing the Baltic Sea, en route from Tallinn, Estonia, to Stockholm, Sweden. The sinking was one of the worst maritime disasters of the 20th century.[1][2] It is one of the deadliest peacetime sinkings of a European ship, after the Titanic in 1912 and the Empress of Ireland in 1914, and the deadliest peacetime shipwreck to have occurred in European waters, with 852 (out of 989) lives stated at the time as officially lost (subsequent passenger list analysis suggest a likely higher figure, see the Sinking section below).[3]

Search and rescue followed arrangements set up under the 1979 International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue (the SAR Convention), and the nearest Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre MRCC Turku coordinated the effort in accordance with Finland's plans. The Baltic is one of the world's busiest shipping areas, with 2,000 vessels at sea at any time, and these plans assumed the ship's own boats and nearby ferries would provide immediate help and that helicopters could be airborne after an hour. This scheme had worked for the relatively small number of accidents involving sinkings, particularly as most ships have few people on board.[11]

One of the victims of the sinking was the Estonian singer Urmas Alender. In total, 94 bodies were recovered: 93 within 33 days of the accident, and the last victim was found 18 months later.[1] By the time the rescue helicopters arrived, around a third of those who escaped from the Estonia had died of hypothermia, while fewer than half of those who had managed to leave the ship were eventually rescued.[1] The survivors of the shipwreck were mostly young males with strong constitutions, from all those who survived 111 were men but only 26 were women. [12] Seven over 55 years of age survived and there were no survivors under age 12. About 650 people were still inside the ship when it sank.[JAIC 1] The commission estimated that up to 310 passengers reached the outer decks, 160 of whom boarded the life-rafts or lifeboats.[13]

In 1999, special training requirements in crowd and crisis management and human behaviour were extended to crew on all passenger ships, and amendments were made to watch-keeping standards.[14] Estonia's distress beacons or EPIRBs required manual activation, which did not happen. Had they been activated automatically, it would have been immediately obvious that the ship was in distress and the location would have been clear. All EPIRBs were subsequently required to deploy automatically and the accident was "instrumental in the move to legislate Voyage Data Recorders".[15] New International Maritime Organization (IMO) Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) liferaft regulations for rescue from listing ships in rough water were introduced.[16]

New designs, the "citadel concept" once again influenced by Estonia, aim to ensure damaged ships have sufficient buoyancy to remain afloat, though cost will determine if any are built. SOLAS 90, which came into effect in 2010, specifies existing passenger ships' stability requirements and those in North West Europe must also be able to survive 50 cm (20 in) of water on the car deck.[17]

On 28 September 2020, a Swedish documentary was released which used underwater equipment to film the wreck. This investigation found a 4-metre hole in the ship's hull. This prompted the Estonian prime minister and foreign minister to meet with their Swedish and Finnish equivalents and announce that a "new technical investigation" would take place.[18]

The head of the Estonian investigation stated publicly that he believes this new information points to a collision with a submarine and that the hole could not have happened post-sinking.[19] In October 2020, the Estonian government published a report stating that the hole was too small to have sunk the ship as quickly as it did.[20] The Swedish documentary makers were prosecuted for violating the sanctity of the wreck, but were acquitted on 8 February 2021 as the diving happened on a German ship in international waters. Germany had not signed the treaty that declares sanctity over the site.[21] However, as a result of a retrial in September 2022, the filmmakers were finally found guilty and fined.[22]

By June 2021, laws allowing the examination of the wreck for investigation of the disaster were passed in the Swedish and Estonian Parliaments.[23][24] Shortly after, the Swedish Accident Investigation Authority announced their plan to conduct dives at the grave site starting July 2021.[25] In July 2023, the car ramp was retrieved.[26]

Between 2021 and 2022, Estonian, Finnish and Swedish authorities carried out comprehensive wreck surveys[27] using cameras, 3D photogrammetry, 3D laser scanners, and shallow- and mid-penetration sub-bottom profilers, among other equipment. This was to identify the cause of penetrating deformation(s) to the hull of MV Estonia and assess whether the safety investigation of the sinking should be re-opened.

In January 2023, the Swedish Accident Investigation Authority (SHK) released the Intermediate Report of the Preliminary Assessment of MS Estonia[28] following the joint investigation. According to the report, there was "no indication of a collision with a vessel or a floating object", neither was there "indication of an explosion in the bow area".[28][29] Also an oil leak was found on the hull's aft section and that the Finnish Border Guard is monitoring the leakage.[30]

Conspiracy theories exist about the cause of the sinking. German journalist Jutta Rabe and the British magazine New Statesman claim that laboratory tests on debris recovered illegally from Estonia's bow yielded trace evidence of a deliberate explosion, which they allege was concealed by the Swedish, British, and Russian governments to cover up an intelligence operation smuggling military hardware via the civilian ferry.[34] Members of the Joint Accident Investigation Commission denied these claims, saying that the damage seen on the debris occurred during the visor's detachment from the vessel. The JAIC cited results from Germany's Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, which found that Jutta Rabe's samples did not prove an explosion occurred.[35]

In the autumn of 2004, a former Swedish customs officer claimed on Sveriges Television that Estonia had been used to transport former Soviet military equipment in September 1994.[36] The Swedish and Estonian governments subsequently launched separate investigations, which both confirmed that non-explosive military equipment was aboard the ship on 14 and 20 September 1994. According to the Swedish Ministry of Defence, no such equipment was on board on the day of the disaster, and previous investigations by the Swedish Customs Service found no reports of any anomalous activity around the day of the disaster.[37][38]

Estonia, a Finnish eight-part television series about MS Estonia's accident, was produced by Fisher King company for the Nordic streaming service C More and released in 2023. According to the creators behind the series, the effort was said to be the most expensive drama series ever produced in Finland.[47][48]

The Estonian Rescue Board (Estonian: Psteamet) is a government agency under the Ministry of the Interior of Estonia. It is tasked with maintaining a secure environment in Estonia, anticipating threats and helping people in the event of an accident. Its mission is to prevent accidents, save lives, property, and the environment.[1] The organization provides a large number of services, including emergency response, firefighting, oil pollution removal, explosive ordnance disposal, chemical and radiation hazard elimination, water rescue etc.[2]

The predecessors of the Estonian Rescue Board were the Firefighting Administration under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union, which was renamed the Fire Fighting Board of the Ministry of the Interior in 1990, and a separate civil defence organization. On September 10, 1991, the Civil Defence Staff was reformed into the National Rescue Board of the Republic of Estonia. The organization was officially established on May 25, 1992, with the liquidation of the State Fire Service Board and transferral of resources and tasks to the National Rescue Board. This move combined civil protection, firefighting and rescue operations under the domain of one organization. The establishment of the new organization was supported by new legislation in the form of the Civil Protection Act in 1992, and the Rescue Act of the Republic of Estonia in 1994. In 2012, the organization was restructured. The Alarm Center became an independent government agency and regional rescue centers were merged under the unified management of the Estonian Rescue Board.[3]

The Estonian Rescue Board is led by a Director General, who is supported by Deputy Director Generals. The Deputy Director Generals help in leading the various departments of the Rescue Board, which develop, plan, manage and implement the activities of rescue centers. These departments include: emergency management department, rescue work department, explosive ordnance disposal ("EOD"), prevention department, safety supervision department, administrative department, human resource department, development department, legal department, finance department, communications department, and the Estonian Firefighting Museum. The Director General oversees the work of rescue centres. There are four rescue centers: North, South, East and West Regional Rescue Center. The rescue centers have various bureaus, which include the prevention bureau, safety supervision bureau, and preparedness bureau. Rescue centers also govern rescue regions, consisting of rescue brigades and stand-by groups. There are 72 national rescue brigades, 119 voluntary rescue brigades, and 4 EOD squads.[1][4][5]

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