Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 4, 1994 TAG: 9410050035
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: TURKU, FINLAND LENGTH: Medium
\ Banging thunderously in a violent storm, the huge front cargo door of the ferry Estonia was ripped off after its locks failed, letting in tons of water that sank the vessel, investigators said Monday.
The crew probably was helpless to save the ship and the more than 900 people who died in the tragedy last Wednesday, according to a preliminary conclusion based on video images sent up from the wreck by robots.
Eerie images of twisted metal, broken windows, unused lifeboats and wafting newspapers flickered on a screen as investigators described their findings from the wreck lying 230 feet below the Baltic Sea's surface.
``There's really nothing the crew could've done,'' said Tuomo Karppinen, a member of the investigatory commission. ``It would've been too late.''
The nine-member commission still must determine why the locking devices on the 60-ton front cargo door failed. Karppinen speculated there likely was a problem before the ferry sailed out of harbor in Tallinn, Estonia, into the storm, headed for Stockholm, Sweden.
Swedish police launched a criminal investigation Monday to see if there had been any negligence in the disaster, the Swedish news agency TT reported.
Within minutes of the announcement of Monday's findings, five major Scandinavian shipping companies, including the Estonia's owner, Estline, said they would weld shut the bow doors of other ferries. The boats could still load vehicles through the stern.
The videotape, recorded from images sent up by the two Sea Owl robots, also showed a problem with the bow's inner door, which doubles as a ramp that is lowered to let in vehicles.
The watertight ramp is still in place, but there was a 3-foot gap along its top edge, which allowed water to flow onto the car deck, the statement said.
``The water inflow through the partly dislodged forward ramp had been of sufficient magnitude to result in a lack of stability and the capsizing of the ferry,'' it said. The commission is made up of Swedes, Finns and Estonians.
Karppinen, a Finnish specialist in hydrodynamics, said the cameras searched the sea bottom in vain for the missing bow door. He said ``everything has been torn out'' of the section on the ferry where the door had been attached.
The Estonia sank after taking on an estimated 1,000 tons of water in its vehicle deck.
Officials on Monday released an updated death toll after a survivor died. They also discovered that several bodies had been listed twice. The provisional toll stood at 137 survivors and 912 dead, with 93 bodies recovered.
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB