Original subtitles

I'm thinking how lucky I am. So lucky to have gotten out.

It makes everything more real, and you value everything much more.

Like what life you could've missed out on.

I don't understand why a proper survey of the ship wasn't done at the time.

I'm looking at how slowly the Titanic went down

and how fast the Estonia went down.

I want answers. What happened and why?

I won't rest until I have the answers.

As a survivor, I hope we get closer to the truth.

I believe that the truth is different from what

the public has been told all this time.

I don't believe that it was just a bow visor that broke and fell off.

If that was the case, then why cover up the vessel?

Why forbid filming of the vessel?

To this day, no one has checked if the ferry's hull was intact when it sank.

It's hard to understand how the boat could have sunk

without a hole in the hull to release the air pockets.

The ship didn't sink as by a miracle. The hole has to be there.

It's so easy to just go down and check.

We don't know if this really was an accident.

Something else could have happened out there.

It's very clear that to take this case further,

we need a new dive on the wreck of the Estonia.

We started in Rostock on a northerly course,

towards the site of the wreck.

The journey takes just over two days.

Today is the day.

I think everybody has been waiting for this.

It's finally the day.

We will arrive at approximately five pm.

The area surrounding the shipwreck

is protected by a Sanctity of the Grave agreement.

It makes diving on the wreck very difficult.

Previous expeditions were faced with serious issues when attempting to dive.

What are your intentions? Over.

My name is Jakob Olszewski.

I'm a diver from two previous expeditions to the Estonia wreck.

This time I'll be a consultant for underwater operations.

We're on a German vessel.

Germany never signed the Sanctity of the Grave agreement

and we're in international waters.

We're not sure what's going to happen.

It seems like we have a law enforcement ship directly on the...

On our side. On the Estonia wreck. They're waiting for us.

For the former two expeditions they've been there every time,

so I don't really expect trouble, but you never know.

When we got close enough to read the side of the ship,

we saw that it was the Finnish Coastguard's largest vessel, Turva.

The Turva was directly over the wreck of the Estonia,

which meant that we couldn't dive if they didn't move.

Turva, Turva, Turva. This is the Fritz Reuter.

Fritz Reuter, this is Turva replying.

I have a question to ask you.

Do you want to maintain the position or move away?

Fritz Reuter, I see you are approaching our location.

What are your intentions?

We are a documentary team making a film about the Estonia disaster.

I understand. Is your intention to do underwater operations?

Yes.

Fritz Reuter, this is Turva.

In that case, I must inform you that the wreck of Estonia

is the final resting place of all the persons lost in this disaster.

We know that.

We are all aware of that, but we're a German vessel

and I think we can go do our work.

One last question for you.

Do you have any Finnish, Swedish or Estonian nationalities on board?

We have two Swedes.

We are about to advance.

Did you copy that we are a German flag vessel and in international waters?

Fritz Reuter, this is Turva.

Yes, we understand that.

For safety of navigation, we are ready to move

half a mile away from this location.

That's fine. Thank you very much.

That's great.

I told you the Finns are pretty nice guys.

Thank you, Finland. Thank you.

When the Turva decided to move, we were very relieved,

but they stayed close by and observed us the whole time.

As a reference on the surface, we have to toss out a so-called shot line.

It's vital that the shot line is placed as close to the wreck as possible.

The vessel's here. We have to move the drop back.

Deck, green light to launch the ROV, please?

Copy. ROV launched.

Thank you.

Okay, drive towards the shot line.

ROV turned 90 degrees left.

90 degrees left. Thank you.

We still don't have visual contact with the shot line. Over.

- Okay, I see it. - We see it now.

We have visual contact with the shot line. Thank you.

- Ready to dive. - Thank you. We're starting the dive.

We are five meters below the surface.

Paying out cable.

The Finnish coastguard reported

a possible breach of burial site restrictions

at the site of the Estonia wreck in the Baltic Sea.

They also suspect the use of an ROV

despite being warned not to and the Sanctity of Grave agreement.

With us now is Petteri Partanen from the Finnish coastguard.

Have you made any arrests?

No, we don't have legal powers in international waters for such actions.

- Are you still monitoring the ship? - Yes, constantly.

I hope the visibility is good down there.

We're going down to about 70 metres depth.

Sixty metres. I think we're getting close.

A lot of jellyfish.

Okay, we have 67 metres below surface.

Okey, so we are... It's coming. I hope its lying... I see it.

ROV has visual contact with the wreck.

It's nicely tucked between our ship and Turva.

- It looks nice. - Great.

It's lying right between the bow thrusters.

The shot line is placed between the bow thrusters.

Coming up to the bulb here.

The bulb is at about 73 metres depth.

The ROV has visual contact with the bulb of the Estonia.

The bulb looks fine.

Nice and gentle. Pay out cable, please.

Paying out cable.

Following along the side fender on the port side.

Copy.

- What's that? - Hold on.

Let's see.

That must be the hole the Rockwater divers made in 1994.

In December 1994 they cut two holes. We should find another over there.

This is the other hole.

We now have good documentation of both the Rockwater entrance holes.

Copy.

As far as I know, Rockwater was supposed to cover the holes

when they were done, but it's open here.

- It could have been done later. - Yes.

- I'll go back. - ROV is returning to the shot line.

It looks like it has tipped over. The angle it's lying at is quite steep.

It seems that there's quite much listing

over to the starboard side.

I think it might be 130 degrees.

- Is the Turva still in position? - Copy.

It would be great if you could go starboard out.

I need to go around the shot line and trace back slowly.

Nice and gentle, pay out cable, please.

Paying out cable.

This must be the fender.

- Is it the starboard fender? - Yes, it has to be.

ROV at starboard fender of the Estonia.

It seems like it's listing.

- Pay out, pay out. - Paying out cable.

There have been theories about a hole on the starboard side

which could explain why the boat sank so fast.

It has never been documented, if they ever filmed it.

This is actually the first time someone's checked

if this part of the boat is damaged.

- You can see quite well. - Yes, yes.

The visibility is good at 85 metres depth.

There's still quite a lot of paint left.

You can still see the white paint and the fender is blue.

This looks like clay to me.

Baltic Sea clay.

The rocks are here.

Shot line's 40 metres aft. Backing up vessel.

That must be the rocks they used to cover it.

Just there...

If you follow the fender further, we have that as a reference.

Hold on.

Let's have a look.

- Are you already... - The boat ends here.

Wow, look.

That looks like a crack. No.

I'll see if I can find a better angle. I was a bit surprised.

That's the fender.

Try come round and see. Can you see inside?

Oh shit. Oh shit.

- It's totally pushed in here. - Yes.

We're looking right into the boat.

You can see the boat's skeleton. It's torn completely open.

On the starboard side it's pushed in a whole metre.

You can see that the fender is completely crushed.

Wow, it's quite...

I'll see if I can go more to the side.

I'm hitting the sandbank behind me. I need to go up and over a bit.

This is above the fender.

There's something around there. An O or an S or something.

Now you can see it. Looks like there's writing there.

It's an S or something around at the bottom.

Estonia wasn't written on the side, I think, but...

It could be the bottom of an S.

There's a towel there, so this might be the swimming pool and sauna area.

I think we're further back.

If we're by the S in Estline, then we're further back.

- How could they have missed this? - If they dived here, they can't have.

- Shot line at midship. - Thank you. ROV midship the Estonia.

We've made an interesting discovery and will stay at this location. Thank you.

Copy.

Here's the fender. It's completely pushed in.

Cable in straight line to the wreck.

Could this be from the time of the shipwreck?

She was standing upright in water.

Yes... Let's check.

I've seen a lot of wrecks, but nothing like this before.

That looks like something that's been done with a huge amount of force.

That looks like steel beams have been ripped right off.

The hull is ripped open here. This piece of metal is sticking out.

- This is clearly a very massive damage. - Yes.

It's hard to find a better angle here. It doesn't seem safe.

We don't know... Stuff is sticking out. I'll try to get closer.

- Look at this. - Yes.

- That's a hole. - That's as big a hole as they come.

That doesn't look like it was only tension.

- We can see the fender, it's pushed in. - Hell, it's pushed in.

To which side was she listing when she sank?

- The list was on the starboard side. - This is the starboard side.

If there was a hole somewhere in the boat then it was going to be here.

Shot line 40 metres aft.

It's long.

- Are you aborting now? - Yes, he can take it home.

Take home cable. We are going up to the surface with the ROV.

We have to go through all the data and also the 4K video footage,

but that was damage we saw, definitely.

- The fender was gone. - Yes.

I thought we had reached the stern since there was no more fender.

Pulling cable.

Just after midnight, there were two really loud bangs.

It sounded like the vessel was ploughing through ice.

Very soon after that the vessel turned abruptly to the starboard side.

As though something on the ship has been hit.

Then all the glass in the cafeteria behind me smashed.

It didn't feel right at all.

Will you be coming to our aid?

It looks very bad here now. Very bad.

I'm very happy that after these few days,

we can really say that we have a game changer.

We've found damages, massive damages.

8They're not questionable any more. They aren't speculations.

The damages are there.

A German flagged vessel

is suspected of breaching the sanctity of the Estonia,

according to the Finnish coastguard.

The Finnish Coastguard believes the purpose of deploying a dive robot

was to photograph the wreck.

The coastguard is taking the matter seriously.

It's something that shouldn't happen.

You shouldn't dive with a robot or people. The wreck should be left alone.

The Finnish Coastguard has been in contact with the vessel

and found out that there are Swedish citizens on board.

They don't know who they are.

After the discovery and documentation of the damage

helicopters and planes started arriving.

We then decided to end the expedition.

What happens now?

We will continue together with the Finnish and international cooperation.

We are closely monitoring their movements.

On Saturday, it will be 25 years since the Estonia sank.

852 people died in the accident.

25 years ago, I survived the Estonia shipwreck.

I got to go back to my family and continue with my life.

Thousands of other people never got to see parts of their family again.

It was a tough night, but it was also hard to carry on living.

Being a survivor, a witness.

I couldn't stand that they didn't listen to us survivors and relatives,

that our accounts weren't valid,

and that the relatives weren't a part of the important decisions made.

How could a country like Sweden react that way?

To me, it was incomprehensible.

Sadly, the handling of the situation continues to affect us.

The decisions made or not made

are like ripples in the water that keep on going forever.

Today my thoughts are with all who lost loved ones that night,

with the other survivors,

and all my fellow passengers who never made it home again.

Many of those who spoke at the memorial,

expressed the need for a new independent investigation.

Based on all the uncovered facts,

a new independent international investigation is needed.

Let's get rid of all the conspiracy theories.

That same night, the Justice Department issued a press release

saying that the government was against a new independent investigation.

The very same night.

"Based on the previous investigations

"the government sees no reason for a new investigation,

"the Justice Department wrote to Swedish Television."

We're visiting Linus Andersson, who was there on the Baltic Sea.

He's has a degree in ship technology

and is an expert at documenting ship damages.

He's analysed the material from Estonia, and we're going to see what he's found.

After processing the footage I've located the position of the damage on the wreck

and its scale. Have a look.

This is a 3D model of the wreck. The damage is here.

That's definitely not just a little damage.

Can you show me the path of the ROV?

When we arrived we dropped a shot line

that landed perfectly between the bow thrusters.

Then we moved up along the hull to the fender.

So we had some type of reference point.

The ROV moved further on about a third of the way to the stern,

where we then saw the damage.

What I noticed when checking various blueprints,

it that the text "ESTLINE" is in different places.

That's why I couldn't use the text, but I used the row of windows.

These bull's-eye windows and bollards are fixed points.

They are correctly placed in every blueprint.

In this model you can see just the opening in the hull,

where it's really open into the ship.

From here to there, how far is that would you say?

We can't see if it continues further, but it's at least four metres.

Four metres in reality, let's start from the ceiling.

It's 2,5 metres to the ceiling here.

So the damage continues for another 1,5 metres.

- Damn, that's big! - Yes, it is.

It's 1,5 metres at the widest point here.

From this curtain to this curtain is almost the width to scale.

1,5 metres over the ceiling. It's really big.

Where is the damage we found?

The damage is here.

There's a bulkhead here.

To the untrained eye, it looks like where people are sleeping.

This happened in the middle of the night, so the cabins were full.

Yes, this is where the passengers were on this deck.

To me, this looks like impact damage

The way it's pushed in here,

it must have been an impact that caused the squashing of the structure.

To me, the damage looks like this

based on how the fender is situated.

It has folded over.

The question is how this happened.

The Meyer Shipyard, who built the Estonia,

claimed there were multiple explosive devices onboard the Estonia

that were detonated at the time of the disaster.

According to experts, someone placed explosive devices on board the Estonia

that detonated as the boat sank.

The report says, on the balance of probability,

that the damage in certain areas had been caused by explosions.

The German group of experts found out that probably

there were two or three explosions, which caused holes in the hull.

There was a big bang and there was another big bang.

The subsequent shuttering of the ship.

All the indications of explosions.

- Hi, I'm Henrik. - I'm Frank.

My name is Frank Břrresen. I am a lieutenant commander

and officer for mine diving operations at the Navy's weapons school.

During my service, I've seen a number of explosions

and their effects on vehicles and ships.

I'm an expert in removal of explosives, diving and marine mine removal.

I see where the damage starts.

What's characteristic here, is that it's elongated.

- Can you bring up measurements? - Yes, it's four metres from here to here.

This graphic shows clearly how the side has been pushed in.

If you compare it to images of known explosions,

like USS Cole or those tankers in the gulf this year,

you'll see the metal bent inwards from an explosion on the outside

or outwards if the explosion was on the inside.

Like someone punched a hole in it.

I can't say it wasn't an explosion, but it seems highly unlikely.

If there was one, the metal would be bent inwards a lot more than we can see here.

The way the paint has peeled is not typical for the area of an explosion.

There's simply not enough displacement of metal

for me to believe this was an explosion.

Based on the images and graphic,

it seems like an external force pushed in the side of the hull.

It's in the middle of...

It's well placed along the waterline.

What does that mean?

Due to the proximity of the waterline. A foreign object might have pushed it in,

but I'm not qualified to say anything else about this.

My name is Jřrgen Amdahl. I'm a professor of marine construction

at the Institute of Marine Technology at NTNU in Trondheim.

Most of my work involves analysing the effects of collisions

between ships or between ships and platforms.

That's quite significant damage.

It looks like the paint has peeled off

which might have been caused by being hit by another object.

An external force.

The question arises, how could this have happened?

What could have caused it?

There are many potential scenarios how this could have happened.

It might have hit something floating in the water.

It could have been the bow visor.

You'd expect to see markings on the bow visor if it had hit the side.

There is significant damage on the bow visor.

Let's see.

This was caused by the bulb.

I can't see many scratches on this side.

I can't see any clear markings that indicate the bow visor did this.

I have to say that...

It's strange, I have to say. That the bow visor was hit, is possible.

Was there anything else floating on the surface?

The scale of the damage means that we can't exclude

that it was relevant in the sinking of the ship.

It's possible to calculate, quite accurately,

the amount of force needed to cause this damage.

It's also possible to calculate

the mass of the object that hit the ship.

So this should be examined further.

At the start of autumn and for its duration, I feel an unrest.

Every year since 1994.

I heard from eye witnesses that Hjřrund was with his mother

when the boat sank.

The stairs were so steep that Hjřrund couldn't climb them

and his mother chose not to leave him.

She wasn't strong enough to get Hjřrund and herself up the stairs.

I feel like I've been subjected to two forms of abuse.

One being the boat sinking and losing my son

and the other when the Swedish authorities decided

to leave the boat where it is.

There must be a reason for not salvaging the boat and that's an answer I never got.

Why is this relevant 25 years later?

Because we still don't know how this accident actually happened.

For me, it's an issue of future safety at sea

for my children, my grandchildren and for different parts of the world.

In such a huge disaster, which the Estonia was,

you need to know what happened and why it happened

and most importantly, that it never happens again.

And I'm convinced the truth will be uncovered eventually.

I'm excited to hear what you've found out.

I can imagine. Let's see.

What we've done, is build an element model

of the side of the ship in a certain length.

And then we rammed an object into the side of the ship

to find out what amount of force and energy is needed

to achieve the amount of damage observed with the ROV.

We can see the side of the ship is pushed in.

There's also a crack forming on the side plates of the ship

and a significant deformation of the ribs and half ribs.

We've removed the sphere to see the course of the damage to the ship.

It's remarkable how similar the animation is to the real thing.

The damage is very similar to what was observed with the underwater camera.

To be specific, the maximum force is around five to six hundred tons.

That's the amount of force needed to cause the deformation

according to our calculations.

- Oh my God, that's a lot of force. - Yes, that's a lot of force.

What does that actually mean?

That's the equivalent of, for example, a thousand ton object

hitting the side of the ship at four knots. Maybe a large fishing boat.

Alternatively, an object with a mass of five thousand tons

moving at 1,9 knots.

That is equal to a medium supply boat.

If it's an object floating in the water, it's not very small.

It's not a wooden log or something of that size.

Even a thousand tons, which we used here, is a large object.

That's unbelievable.

Last time, we discussed the bow visor hitting the side of the ship.

The bow visor weighs fifty five tons.

Fifty five tons is very little weight in this context. It really is.

Talking about a thousand tons, that's twenty bow visors.

So it's safe to say that it wasn't a bow visor that caused the damage.

Can we open the door? I'm a bit shaken...

I had a lot of... We talked about me asking you a lot of questions,

but this has upset me a bit, I have to say.

I'm a bit surprised by the amount of energy involved after working on this.

So you're not exaggerating? That's a modest calculation?

No, we try keep it as rational as possible. We do try.

It's also possible that the ship hit a rock on the seafloor.

That could also have been an applied force.

That is dependent on whether there were rocks firmly stuck on the seafloor,

but it is also a possibility

We have studies of the seafloor

that were done in connection to the concrete covering.

It was concluded that it was a deep section of loose clay

followed by a section of slightly more dense moray clay.

That's several metres beneath the seafloor.

- So there's no indication of rocks there. - No.

At least not described in the documentation.

We have spoken to many first hand sources and especially many survivors.

They made many compelling observations.

Here we have Carl Eric Reintamm, who is a survivor.

He reached the promenade deck very quickly.

Let's have a look.

The moment I got to the outside of the vessel, I didn't see anyone.

There was no one where I was standing. I was the first to get there, apparently.

While I was standing there I naturally looked out to sea,

I looked down and saw something strange in the water.

I saw something white that was several metres long and wide

and it was moving to the left

while waves were rolling over it.

I never served in the military.

I have no idea what a submarine looks like in the water.

The water was dark.

I don't know if a submarine can appear brighter than the water,

but obviously the vessel hit something.

What else could explain the noises that sounded like

the vessel was ploughing through ice

when you're down there, where you can hear everything that hits the vessel.

That does make an impression, naturally.

It's something, you could say, that makes you think.

Especially in light of the observations made now of the Estonia

and the seafloor.

Does it sound reasonable what he's saying or is it...

I can't say it doesn't sound reasonable. He sees something, right?

And...

Of course, it's not certain that he can see everything.

A boat would've been quite long

but he doesn't necessarily have to see the whole boat.

There are different size submarines

and definitely from under a thousand tons to several thousand tons.

Let's see if there's any images available.

Kobben submarine.

Is there a size?

This is actually a really small boat, right?

Wait, let's see if there are details about its displacement.

Submarine weight. Maybe an Ula-class?

A thousand tons, yes.

Yes, these are two Ula-class submarines. They're about a thousand tons.

You can't conclude anything based on this.

Anyway, all the witness accounts should be considered, in my opinion.

- This account was never considered. - It was never considered?

This observation needs to be taken seriously. It does.

It's a mystery to begin with. Why did it get damaged like this?

If it happened before the ship sank, then it's definitely a huge mystery.

Based on these new discoveries we've made,

what do you think should be done now?

Based on the technical and professional evaluation of the damage,

I think the cause of the damage should be investigated

and whether it caused what happened and how it ended.

This is new evidence that no one has reported before

and obviously an explanation for this is necessary.

I think so.

Every accident will generally have different theories and explanations

depending on different people's knowledge

and maybe agenda.

I know the Estonia is connected to various theories,

that have surfaced.

You have to be willing to openly discuss everything.

It's never right to hide things because you're afraid of a debate.

Welcome.

We will give a short presentation to inform you of some findings

concerning the Estonia disaster.

During our work on this series,

we've realized that there are more questions than answers

on what happened to the Estonia on 28th of September 1994.

You'll see ROV footage of the starboard side of the Estonia.

It will shed new light on the Estonia disaster.

- Pay out, pay out. - Paying out cable.

Go along the fender, so we have a reference point.

Wait a minute.

The boat ends.

Wow, look.

It looks like a crack. No.

It's horrible. Heads must roll after this.

They can't play this down.

It's massive damage.

This is a true scandal unlike anything else.

I'm not just upset, I'm angry.

This is dramatic.

Especially that it wasn't discovered when they made the shipwreck report.

It's shocking, I'd say.

It is...

This is something I've waited for all these years.

It seems revolutionary.

They really have to tell us what actually happened!

The knowledge is there, and we want it. There's no need for a new survey.

What's necessary is telling the truth about what happened.

This has to be brought as high up in the system as possible.

The stones that might tumble, will just have to tumble.

It's hard to say what caused the hole

because something has hit it from the outside.

We never knew about this, so it's a new find.

Why it wasn't discovered before, I can't say.

All authorities should look into this. The Estonian as well. Naturally.

I definitely consider this find as a game changer.

I think that after this,

it will be impossible for the Estonian government to do nothing.

It's simply impossible.

- This is a serious damage. - It's completely pushed in.

Look. It's straight into the boat.

That's about it. What do you think?

Quite frankly, those chilling pictures need to be digested.

I'm not sure, since I'm not an expert in maritime matters.

I'm not exactly sure what I've seen and what to make of it.

The main problem is that three countries have agreed

that they neither dive nor film the shipwreck.

Could that peace treaty also be a hindrance

to discovering what happened to the Estonia that night?

We're not authorized to give any comments on that.

This is completely new information.

We need to digest it.

We'll take this information to our experts and describe it.

We'll see what the following steps will be.

Losing a loved one like this, is hard.

It takes time to get over it.

And then, 25 or 26 years later, to find out

that there has probably been a huge effort to keep it in the dark.

Everything that has been so strange when it comes to the Estonia,

is due to a wish to hide the reason for the shipwreck.

The conspiracy theories have just been fragmented ideas.

But when you see this huge hole in the side of the ship,

which haven't been revealed, investigated or anything,

you kind of think that this might be a turning point.

I feel like it has been worth the wait.

There's more hope of knowing now.

I want to find the truth now.

To us who have worked for a long time with these questions,

this isn't the end, but the beginning.

The beginning of the next phase regarding the Estonia.

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