Estonia disaster was there a coverup

[Tarn Stephanos]

Recall the ferry Estonia, whos bow was wrecnched loose in a storm, and sank with over 900 souls? I have read there was some coverup in the investigation- and massive ammounts of gravel have been dropped upon the wreck. Were family members requests of recovering the bodies of victims ever honored?

regards

Tarn Stephanos

 

[Iain Stuart Yardley]

Morning Tarn,

I believe that the wishes of family members was never met, the Estonia has become a concrete tomb, which I find quite disturbing. They said it would not be in the best interests of anyone if the ship were to remain accessible, which I find strange. I suppose that because most of the victims are all over the ship inside their own cabins and public areas, recovery of bodies would be near-enough impossible?

Cheers,

Boz

 

[Stefan Christiansson]

I don't believe they have covered the ship Estonia with concrete yet. They were discussing it directly after the sinking, but I think they abandoned the idea.

I haven't investigated it further, but as I live in Stockholm, Sweden I would probably have heard of any covering on the news. They tend to report any news on this ship.

 

[Mikael Jonsson]

I know people who was on Estonia. Or it was more my mother who knew them. 852 of 989 passengers died. There was no coverup after the sinking. That is just bullshit.

 

[Stefan Christiansson]

Mikael: I wouldn't call it bullshit. There were plans to cover Estonia. But I believe it was considered both too expensive and too difficult to pull it through. There were many however that wanted the wreck covered.

 

[Dave Gittins]

I fear that you Vikings are confusing 'coverup' as in hiding the facts with 'coverup' as in covering the wreck with gravel or concrete. Tarn was thinking of the first kind of coverup.

English is a weird language!

 

[Stefan Christiansson]

Dave: No not at all.
I was reffering to the gravel that Tarn suggested would have been dropped upon the wreck. This never happended. Nor did they use concrete.
As far as cover-ups of the investigation goes, there are always some present, but the shocking truth of the cause of the disaster has been revealed to the public.

 

[Iain Stuart Yardley]

Hello Stefan,

I remember hearing that a huge steel wire cage had been poistioned around the Estonia and then covered with concrete. This definitely did not happen? Does that mean the ship is accessible?

I also heard that there was going to be no attempted recovery of the victims (this was in the early days - such an attempt now would be futile). This always struck me as strange, although I suppose that it was considered an unacceptable risk to any would-be rescuers.

Also, some sources say the number of fatalities was 852, some say 912. Which figure is correct?

Cheers,

Boz

 

[Tarn Stephanos]

Actually I was wondering both if gravel has been used to entomb the wreck,as was planned, and if there was a coverup in the investigation. Didnt the company who owned the ship head the investigation? A conflict of interest methinks- smells of a coverup to me...

Tarn Stephanos

 

[Stefan Christiansson]

There were early plans of covering the ship in concrete to avoid anyone to reach it, but this never happened. The wreck is still accessible.
I believe last autumn an American team came there to dive. Since the wreck lies at international waters there was nothing that could be done to prevent it. I believe however that some very large Navy vessels went out to the site to disturb the dives.

One of the reasons they didn't recover any of the victims from the wreck is that the ship came to a tilt of such degree in such a little time, that most people had no chance to get out of their cabins. That means that they would basically have to go through every cabin on every deck of the ship rendering the task very dangerous and expensive.

All coutries surrounding the wreck have signed a treaty that they will not allow any dives to the wreck.

The investigation after the sinking was conducted by the Swedish authorities.
There has been several investigations since also conducted by the goverment. I believe the coverups (if any) were not more than usual.

 

[Stefan Christiansson]

There were 852 victims of the Estonia disaster.

 

[Mikael Jonsson]

Dave: Oops. I made just the mistake you wrote about

The problem was that I didn't know what gravel was.

89% of the passengers died on Estonia. If you are interested in the disaster I recommend you to read the book written by the survivor Kent Härstedt. That book was sad, but very exciting. I don't know the title of the book in English. Maybe you know Stefan?

Stefan: It was no american team who dove at the wreck. It was a german team led by the famous german diver Jutta Rabe or however she may spell her name. (Kolla min Titanic-Estonia jämförelse på www.titanicnorden.co m/norden.html)

 

[Stefan Christiansson]

Mikael: Actually we are both correct. There was a cooperation between the german photographer Jutta Rabes and an american billionaire named Gregg Bemis. I believe the money for the expedition came from Bemis and was carried out under supervision from Rabes. Gregg Bemis is now trying to convince the Swedish government to further investigate the sinking of the ship since his team believes there was a bomb set of that sank the ship.

I have no idea what the name of that book is in English.

 

[kevin johnson]

does bemiss have proof or is it just suppostion

 

[Stefan Christiansson]

He claims to have evidence on videotapes of the wreck filmed by his team during their expedition.
I have not seen the evidence and others say there are none to see, so I don't really know what to believe, but Bemis has not taken the allegation out of thin air he says.

What does show on the video is that there are at least 8-11 dead bodies lying on the ocean floor surrounding the wreck.

The investigation carried out by the Swedish government came to the conclusion that all victims not picked up at the scene of the disaster back in 1994 are now inside the ship which now has been proven wrong.