Investigating the sinking of MS Estonia (2020) 

I have made an update July 2023. The front RAMP has been raised from the seafloor! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jxdJmRWpOlk.html

My good friend Thommy de Klerck is still on board...... R.I.P. old friend.

Why am i watching this as im on a ferry to sweden

People are sharing their stories about the tragedy so here's mine. My grandfather and grandmother was scheduled for that exact trip, they were 70 at the time. My mother woke up the next morning of the incident hearing the news and became frantic and tried calling them on the phone but no one answered. She packed everyone in to the car ( me , my sister's and my dad) and drove to their house expecting to find an empty house. On arrival there is my grandma and grandfather packing their bags in to a taxi. Apparently my grandfather had gotten a cabin below the waterline and got mad and rebooked the trip for the next day so he could have a view of the water from the cabin. My mom started crying and tried to explain the ship was gone. My grandfather could not understand what she meant until they turned on the news. Thank the Lord

Holy shit, this is scarier than any horror movie. I really can't even imagine what must have been going through these people's minds... Absolutely horrifying

I realized just now, watching this, that I've actually traveled with Estonia in the late 80's, but then she was called Viking Sally. I didn't know it was the same vessel. A strange feeling.

:( A friend of a friend was getting married. She was waiting for them at port. Her family, the wedding party, her future husband...all lost on that ship. Just tragic

I appreciate how well you explain how difficult it is to escape a tilting or capsizing ship. People often think it's just a matter of jumping out and floating/swimming, but a sinking ship is a horrible death trap, like an entire building twisted sideways with all objects falling over.

i love how he says "ah screw it.... do you speak finish?" . like... your SUPPOSED to speak English (also in aviation)..... but when your excited like that, it can be hard he did EXACTLY what he needed to do..... ask if they speak his native language.... to communicate faster and clearer . perfect!!! text-book stuff

Just imagine being stuck at the bottom of those stairs which were full of panicking people and dead bodies on a ship with a list of 90 degrees, in a storm in the Baltic sea, with no idea how far from land you are, with no escape knowing you are going to die. Rest in eternal peace to those who lost their lives. ❤

That Mayday call is extremely chilling to listen to...

I'm Swedish. And my country lost 501 citizens that night. May they all RIP, as well as everyone else who lost their lives in this terrible tragedy.

Me and a few friends were on a regular cruise from Sweden to Estonia a few years ago on a big silja line boat and a lot of people were outside (including us) in the middle of the night, drinking beer and having a pleasant time. Then suddenly someone with an Estonian accent stood up and almost cried, speaking loud so everyone could hear. "This very night, 20 years ago my relatives were on a cruise just like this almost exactly at this spot. They are still beneath us. Let's have a silent minute for them." That was so haunting to hear.. but the beautiful thing was that everyone, absolutely everyone paused their partying and paid tribute to those lives that were lost that night, and to those whose final resting place was just beneath our boat, in the pitch black water... that memory will always be with me. Ps; we had no idea that it was the 20 year "anniversary" of the very tragic event.. I cried when I stood there leaning over the rail looking down into the black water.. may them rest in peace ❤️

Its terrifying to die from drowning BUT think about that when you have already survived to the water and have not yet sinked, then a SHIP just drives over you. Many many meters big, metal ship, huge, cold waves, dark... and you get run over.

Them leaving the bodies at the site means that they can name the wreck as a burial site. Then no one can dive there to investigate more because it is illegal to dive on a burial site. Which is horrible reasoning if it is true.

Listen to the whole radio between Estonia, Europa and Mariella... absolutely chilling. Been on a ferry once, over night from Rotterdam to Dublin. Pretty rough sea, super windy, pitch dark outside, no lights around except for the lights of another ship on the horizon... kind of frightening, when you think about it.

As an Estonian, I can say that you would unlikely find a family in Estonia who did not know someone on that ship, whether it was family, friends, acquintances or neighbours. If you're from Tallinn the chance of this increases as many of the staff there were from Tallinn. My parents lived in the same neighbourhood as the captain's wife and they remember she always said things didn't add up. Also bearing in mind the population is so small, most Estonians on Facebook have at least one person in common with any random Estonian person they find on Facebook... I see some comments saying people are making up stories about knowing people.

It's so chilling to hear the mayday calls. My uncle was an international truckdriver. He supposed to be on the Estonia that night. But he was a few minutes late and that is why he did not make it on time to be on the Estonia. These few minutes saved his live.

I remember hearing the "mayday" call on the TV news as a kid... It did then, and still sends chills down my spine. Me and my mom and brother were on it a few months before it sank, I still have the toy we bought. My heart breaks for the families affected by this awful event..

The dancer woman in the documentary used in this video said that survival was down to luck and nothing but luck. It was all about being in the right place at the right time. Most places on board that ship were just coffins when it started going down and no matter what you did, you were doomed. What saved her was knowing that the higher up you were when an accident happened, the more likely you were to survive (she had taken part in the ship's safety drills because she worked on board). So she knew immediately to take things seriously and get up on the deck when she heard the bangs and felt the ship tilt. Her cabin was pretty high up the ship as well so she had time to get out. M/S Estonia actually sank so fast that most people didn't stand a chance - especially because they didn't immediately understand the severity of the situation

My mother almost died from that boat. She had to do an exam in back in her school in Estonia, so she had to stay in Estonia while her friends which invited her to go to Sweden died on that boat. Of the 989 on board, 138 were rescued.. the story of those people in that night still scare me until today, i really hope something like it doesn't happen again.

I as a Finnish man hearing that brave lad leaving the distress message and calling for help. I salute you man rest in peace. Nuku hyvin siellä merihaudassa.

It was a NATO exercise at the same time as Estonia was sunk. So there defenitly was submarines in the area and one sub was dry docked in scotland not long after the Estonia disaster with massive damages to the front. Im speaking to the submarine theory. I love your explenation with the frontal collison. great conclusion mate

Impressive that the Vikings used to cross these seas with their longboats

What a stark contrast between the crew of the Estonia and the crew of the Costa Concordia, on the Costa Concordia the minute there was trouble the captain was in the lifeboat ahead of the passengers but the Estonia was on its side in pitch black and heavy seas and the crew were still on the bridge sending out maydays trying to get their coordinates to nearby ships so the passengers could be rescued.

I always remember my dad telling me that he was in the finnish military at the time when this happened. They stayed up all night listening to the mayday calls waiting to go and help. But they were too far away from the ship. Its scary to think that he heard that guy calling mayday. If the ship was about 30 kilometers closer they could have almost been there in time. Rip to all the people that lost their lives on that ship that day.

The fact that the dude puts some interstellar music in the video makes it even more chilly

It takes some brass balls for the crew to remain in the bridge looking for help while the ship is getting progressively perpendicular to the ocean. They were heroes in their own right

Since that Costa Concordia video, I can't stop watching ship shinking stories.

Scarier than any horror movie. constant goosebumps

Imagine going to bed on the Estonia that night, Expecting to wake up around 7 AM to eat breakfast and have a nice day. Then you realise.

I can’t imagine the horror, especially for the children. RIP

I mean the crew tried every thing the could to save their ship and passengers . The fact that there were 7 ships near by that were communicating with them trying to locate the ship and rescue anyone that was available to them was amazing. My heart goes out to all the people who side that night ❤️❤️❤️

3:56 If you position the bridge vertically, that's almost the height of the entire ship above the water, and knowing that she was completely on her side, and that the bridge officers had no escape to the sides, and would have been at their stations with no posibility of escape, it's fair to say that those who were on the bridge most likely died from falling from a great height or a combination of fall injuries and being crushed by machinery. In fact, a lot of deaths on the Estonia were people falling to their deaths far below them when trying to jump the hallways where they crossed, which now had become like elevator shafts going straight down, and falling through the windows deep into the ship when walking on the outside.

I'm in maritime school and one my teachers was saving people when Estonia sank

There's nothing natural about this accident. So many cover ups in the mayhem than was 90's after the Soviet collapse. So suspicious to so quickly declare a resting site, almost as if there's something to hide.

About the dent on the bow visor, you all do realize that if M/S Estonia was travelling the cruise speed of a bit over 20kts, and the submarine was going head on, it wouldn't cause a little dent, it would rupture the whole bow of both vessels. Even a collision with the dock can do serious damage when going like 5kts.

Those who helped others in stress situation like this are brave people.

Swedish government has some dirty laundry to deal with. The decision to not bring up the bodies for burial is unforgivable.

This was a great video. As an American, I'd never heard of the Estonia - what an incredible and heartbreaking story

Another mystery is that the captain and few crew members went missing after the sinking. They were on the list of survivors, but they never made it back to their homes. They just.. dissappeared.

There's been some truly horrific losses at sea in modern times, Estonia, Sewol, Costa Concordia, to name but three! Recklessly negligent judgement had a hand in all, and the Captain's and Crew's cowardice, dereliction of duty and pure bad faith played a major role in Sewol and Costa Concordia. The roles of the government's involved in the Estonia sinking have been secretive, and their absolute determination to fail to openly investigate raises serious questions about their activities, motivations and objectives. It can be said with certainty that they have never wanted the truth to be known. There was no reason that this wreck could not be salvaged and brought aboard a barge and brought to a port as was done with Sewol, when a thorough internal search and body recovery program was carried out!

A more plausible theory could be the Estonia's bow was damaged in a previous unreported mishap, which dented the bow and weakened the bow's latching system. This has happened to other similarly designed ships with lifting bows. In my scenario, on that fateful night, gale force winds and enormous, white-capped, six to seven meter high waves, relentlessly battered the Estonia's storm bow. Speeding along at twenty plus knots, her weakened bow locking mechanism failed and the bow was lifted open from the extreme water pressure and repetitive pounding. The gale force winds and waves got under the bow and flipped it backwards. Mountainous waves then cleaved the bow's hinges, and with a mighty crash, the bow of the Estonia was sheared clean off the ship. Like a leaf in the wind, the bow flipped end-over-end landing into the foaming sea, on the starboard side of the swiftly moving ship. The bow remained afloat for a short time with a trapped air pocket. Another enormous wave launched the partially submerged bow backwards again into the side of the rolling Estonia as she was speeding past. One of the sharp broken hinges of the bow sliced deep inside the ship's steel hull like a hot knife through butter, below the waterline and about midships, opening up a jagged gash through which the frigid Baltic sea rushed in, flooding the passenger deck, cabins and compartments below the car deck. This scenario might explain the large gash found in the side of the Estonia by divers. The ripped off bow could have caused this hole. With the influx of water through the her side and the unbalanced weight, the Estonia started listing heavily and rolling to starboard. Unaware the protective bow was now gone and the Estonia was in extreme peril, the bridge crew continued to plow her at high speed through the heavy seas towards Stockholm. Now, totally unprotected by the storm bow, the remaining inner car deck door could not withstand the full force of the Baltic Sea's onslaught and the relatively thin front loading door buckled and broke open allowing gigantic waves of water to rush inside, quickly overwhelmed the car deck and like child's toys all of the vehicles on the car deck were ripped loose from their moorings and violently slammed into the starboard side of the car deck, which caused the Estonia to heel over on a more acute angle. There was little time to radio a distress call and order abandon ship. The lights suddenly went out and in the blackness the stricken Estonia now had only a few short minutes before she would slip below the waves. There was precious little time for the terrified passengers and crew that managed to claw their way to the top deck before the list became too extreme and they had to scramble onto the ship's side. Most were trapped below decks, unable to climb up the steeply angled stairways. One by one, those on top leaped into dark icy Baltic to escape the sinking ship and some made it to the few rafts that were deployed. Eventually the howling wind drowned out the cries for help and emergency whistles. It is hard to comprehend the awesome destructive power of the sea and how fast it can claim it's victims no matter how mighty the ship. I believe the Estonia met its unfortunate demise from extreme structural failure due to the awesome destructive power of the sea. No submarine collision was necessary to sink this ship.

6:55 "Immediately go to information desk and ask whats going on". No way would I bother with this. The staffs first line will always be "everything is fine". They won't say anything until ordered to even if they know. Look what happened on the Costa Concordia. People were told it was just a generator problem and they should return to there cabins. The same happened in 9/11 at the WTC. people were told to go back to there offices.

This disaster has always interested me due to the fact that there is definitely more to this accident than what is told to the public.

The divers was not asked for bringing up the people they were actually told to not bring them up, thats a big difference, also noteworthy is that the divers felt really bad about that as Mr Rumbles mentions in the recent Doc

When I was kid a watched a documentary about the Estonia and never forget about it. It's nice to see like 20 years later a very precise video like this, with nice animation, recordings and original documents about it. I always thought the collapse of the front door was due to lack of maintenance. The submarine theory makes really sense to me

My dad told me about when the giant helicopters flew over his house here in Sweden in the middle of the night when this happened. Dad turned to mom and said "something really terrible have happened, I know it". This tragedy still affects him today.

Diving in a dark shipwreck filled with bodies..that is the stuff of nightmares and so is the sinking itself dear god.

Thanks to translating this for the rest of the world. Estonia a revolutionary discovery (new document) is big thing now.

To the people that wasn't able to get out of the estonia as the ship sank rest in peace, and rest easy.

This is an incredible documentary with tons of crazy-rare footage. The Estonia is one of the most tragically overlooked maritime tragedies out there, especially with the coverup attempts by Sweden. I could’ve sworn that the Swedish government suppressed/censored all the dive videos from the first recovery mission in the 90s until I saw it here... I hope that the families of the victims get justice.

The narrator did an incredible job! Didn't sound like reading from script and you could hear angst and compassion as well as shock at some points. Thank you.

Documentaries like this is what makes RU-vid worth it. This is amazingly good! /Swede that goes on an occasional weekend cruise to the Baltics.

When you have a tragic event that is found to involve politicians and intelligence services, usually, no good is going to come from it. Also, I have a huge problem with the speed with which the Estonian government moved to declare this wreck a 'grave site' and then, literally, physically, cover the ship up. This happened swiftly. If one remembers the partial sinking of the Italian cruise ship, Concordia, off the coast, several years back, one remembers that it took a long time to examine the wreck and recover bodies, then another long period before the wreckage was salvaged. But this disaster was, clearly, the fault of the ship's Captain, for which he was sentenced to a long prison term. The Estonia disaster, claimed many more lives than the Concordia, yet a proper maritime investigation, in a court of law; drawing on eyewitness accounts and technical data from the ship's manufacturers, etc. was, as far as I know, not held. It's been pretty much established over the last 100 years or so, that the Titanic broke apart because of the poor standards of steel making that couldn't handle frigid conditions and partly due to a long, slow burning fire in one or more of the coal bunkers, as well as the damage from the iceberg. Long, official and unofficial examinations of the Titanic's sinking were held and on-going investigations have turned the Titanic's sinking into something much bigger than a 'cottage industry'. In the past few weeks, I've done some research and was unable to find any other ship wreck site that has been deliberately covered up with material to "stop grave robbers or others desecrating the wreck". Although many experts have said that the bodies on the Estonia could easily be recovered, they have not been. Diving on the wreck has been made illegal. Every unanswered aspect of the Estonia disaster clearly, to me, points to a political and/or intelligence cover-up I live in Tasmania. I have often travelled from Devonport, in Tasmania's north, to Melbourne across Bass Strait on both 'sister' ferries that were built in 1998 by Kvaerner Masa-Yards at Turku New Shiyard in Finland. These vessels, now named 'Spirit of Tasmania 1 & 2' (purchased from a Greek line in 2002) have bow and stern doors. They have had a perfect safety record operating across the 40°0′S latitude which has some of the roughest sea-states anywhere in the world during the winter months. In 2005 the 'Spirit of Tasmania 1' encountered 20 metre (65 foot) seas that caused minor damage. The vessel was repaired and resumed service the next day. There were no injuries or loss of life. If maintained properly these types of ships are strong and are able to handle rough conditions. You be the judge of what happened aboard the Estonia. Chances are the truth will never be revealed. Cheers, BH

My dad’s friend is still on that boat. R.I.P

As a user of RORO ferries this disaster really rests still deep in the psyche, every time you enter through the door of a ferry to the cavern of the car decks looking at the bow doors you always say a prayer to be on a safe journey and not befall the same fate , terrible haunting disaster. Much has changed in the industry but the cruel sea demands respect.

To people who keep saying the hole was caused when it hit seabed. The estonia rests on a thick layer of soft clay, not only that the estonia didn't drop like a rock like titanic, the estonia sank in very shallow water and basically floated to bottom. Let me put it in to perspective. MS Estonia is 157 metres long, the seabed she rests on is 85 metres deep. If estonia was stood upright on her stern then pretty much half the ship would be poking out of the sea! Just over half the length of MS estonia is equals to the depth of water she sank in. Not deep atol. It is very shallow for a ship this size so estonia would have floated to the clay. Definitely didn't rip a 4x1 metre hole in the hull snapping steel beams. The hitting the seabed theory is false. The footage and pictures of the damage clearly indicate something circular has hit estonia and torn the hull.

That sadness in the voice of that Mayday callout... He knows it is all too late and he is going to die. He just wants to safe a few lifes.

My theory is that the reason for the sinking is relatively irrelevant with regards to the cover-up. The cover-up is more likely for stolen military weaponry being transported on board, possibly radioactive.The cement grave reminded me of Chernobyle protocol. Also this could explain both the reason for the dive missions and why neither the bodies or the ship were brought up. Further explanation: Exploring the interior of the ship is not necessary for determining the cause of sinking. An exterior damage assessment would be much more useful than anything that can be done inside. Because removal of bodies was clearly not the objective of the mission, the question arises of why to enter the ship in the first place. A possible explanation could be to survey the damage of sensitive military equipment being transported. If equipment is unstable, it may not be safe to bring to the surface. If equipment is leaking harmful material, the ship might require the cement coating to contain leakage. Any bodies could have been exposed to harmful material and therefore bringing them to the surface could create a breach of information if material is discovered on them. Additionally a restricted dive site stops potential information spread.

My mom had worked on that ship and switched jobs a month before it sunk. Hearing the news horrified her and all she could think about is all the co-workers she had lost

Thank you for making this. I hadn't even heard of the MS Estonia sinking until about a year ago. I don't think many people realize how quickly even the big ships can go down. The survivor stories from this disaster are nightmarish. What a terrible fate for those people.

This documentary is so well produced! Good job! This story deserves world wide attention.

When I was 5 y/o my best friend and neighbors mum died on MS Estonia. I couldnt believe life was so unfair to him and his family. RIP.

Hans Zimmer- "Stay"- Interstellar. Beautiful and perfect dramatic soundtrack. Thanks for uploading.

One can have opinion on seamanship running at full speed in such weather (15-16 knots compared to Europas 10 and Mariellas 9) but there was a lot of bravery and professionalism also, just think of the first officer who managed to get up on the bridge, took charge, calculated the position manually to give it to Europa and Mariella (they identified his voice) He was last seen on deck handing out life belts. Or the third engineer who stayed on his post until it was almost to late desperately trying to keep the pumps working. Both not thinking about themselves, now these two (prob more) are real heroes.

this is probably the biggest cover up in swedish history. I strongly recommend that you see the whole "Estonia Fyndet Som Ändrar Allt", cause there are soo many things that is not right about how this whole thing was handled. The part about the boyfriend to one of the crews on the boat, is heartbraking. He was going to uphold his promise to the love of his life, and bring her body home , and to do so he charted a boat and divers and went out to get her. only to be met by the coast guard who was right on top over the estonia, refusing to let them dive. And this was before this no diving law was enforced. The coast guard sabotaged the dive, so the poor guy had to return home empty handed. He later passed in cancer. also in the documentary they talk to a explosives experts from norway to see if it could have been a bomb, but he did not find anything pointing towards that being the case. Instead they talk to another expert, who looked closer to this hole on the side, and he calculated the mass needed to inflict that kind of damage. If i remember correclty, it was about 1000 ton (100 000kgs) moving in aprox 4km/h. The stones the goverment started to dumped on the ship, is found around this new found hole in the ship. coincidence? And the divers who you can see in this video told the world they closed the holes after their mission onto the ship. yet in the new documentary you can see it is still open. Has someone else been there? again, see the documentary Estonia Fyndet Som Ändrar Allt, the maker is pending charges for diving down there (last i heard), so you know its worth it.

That intro was so chilling. Almost Movie quality. Scratch that this looks better than most documentaries. I never even herd of this sinking. Thank you

I went to Swedish gymnasium when this happened. Some people in my class came from the neighbour county. That neighbour county had two classes of 15 yos on Estonia. Noone from those classes came home. They all died on this ferry. EDIT: I was 17 or 18 at that time. Also, Norway has immense experience with deep sea operations, being an oil producer. They could EASILY help to recover bodies and even the Estonia ship. This was actually talked about in Sweden during the immediate aftermath, BUT somehow after a month or so, every officiall voice suddenly decided to LITERALLY cover it up. It is completely insane and I WILL give the conspiracy theorists my vote. There was something weird on Estonia that evening. Something that officialls deemed not proper for us mere mortals to know.

What makes me raise questions is. I would have liked to see if the military cargo is still on the vessel. The theory of the bow doors being the cause and recovering the main door gives them easier access to recover the military cargo which if it went in last would have been directly at the front. Plenty of time to recover and then two months down the line decide to attempt a burial of the vessel. I also read that the company who were given the job or burying the vessel specialise in nuclear salvage at sea and 11 members of the crew that survived were apparently erased from the list and disappeared.

By the looks of the visualization (if its correct) at 22:34, a bomb planted on the inside of the ship is not plausible since the hull is bent inwards from the rear, an explosion would have bent the hull outwards. It seems like a foreign object penetrated the hull at a slight angle, hence why the part of the break facing the stern is bent inwards and the part facing the bow is bent slightly outwards.

Wow, the editing along with the mayday call, pitch black sea and no light or electricity is something straight out of a horror movie

The only questions I have regarding the collision with a Submarine theory would be: Surely there would have been some visible evidence of this? Such as the trading of paint somewhere along the hull, It would have been very visible considering the black/red paint on a submarine on a mostly white/blue hull of the Estonia would easily stand out. Not to mention, the hole as seen in the video is a piercing hole (followed by what looks like cantelevered/deflection buckling), it's highly improbable that it was made by the large/rounded surface area of a Submarine. My best guess would be the hole being made by Estonia's bow visor colliding with the hull sometime after it broke off.

I've watched many documentaries about this tragedy. This is by far the best one! Edit; I subscribed, great channel

My parents were neighbors with the captain, he seemed like a strange man and always asked for alcohol, food etc. From Sweden. He speaked good Swedish and sometimes were gone for ”semester” in Sweden for long periods of time without explanation. After the sinking, the man was long gone. Leaving his family. They know he is alive and lives somewhere in Sweden but they are for some reason not able to take contact with him. Maybe he has got protection from the state so he doesn’t spill information? Edit: it was either the first or the second captain.

you describe how it must have been inside very well... walls in corridors now being ceilings that you could therefore not stand in, scrambling and fighting past other desperate people, elderly, children... darkness, loud, chaos.... absolute hell on earth. Some of them trapped could have survived for hours before either suffocation or drowning as the water rose. Horrendous. God bless all those who perished.

The thing about the submarine theory is that there have been many cases of ships ramming submarines and sinking them not really other way around and even more the size of the Estonia is very large compared to a submarine so in my opinion it is very unlikely that a collision with a sub sank it.

I wouldn't rule out a Russian sub that was sold to the Europeans that was crewed by guys not familiar and for safety reasons operating on diesel power requiring only transiting at night so they wouldn't be seen running on diesel. Transiting hiding near Estonia would help no being detected. Try asking where the sold Russian subs are.

A great video of a disaster i've never even knew happened. Thank you for your work

The sinking of MS Estonia became a modern time sinking of Titanic. All of people of Sweden, Finland & Estonia was deeply affected by this disaster. I was a young kid back then and was kind of customed to travel by these ferries so I had already then a kind of good understanding on the layout. When the news broke out, it was like a giant fist hit your face. It was a great shock and so many questions came to be, and years and years with-out good answers other then the failed visor. Never ever mentioned the giant hole in the left side that was covered up.... I had a classmate who's grandparents was on MS Estonia and lost there lives there. I remember how I and school mates did out very best to try and comfort him, but naturally there was not much more we could do. We could all understand how heavy the feeling of loss was. For my own sake, me and my lill brother was living in fosterhome and had little to no access to my family so I could somewhat relate to not having access to those you love. Over the years, I have met others who had relatives who lost there lives on MS Estonia. One can only imagine on how and if you would be able to survive that night under such harsh conditions, even if you are customed to colder water and are a good swimmer and have/had a tough survival mentality. I have always imagined I could have had a decent chanse to survive based on my swiming skills I had already as kindergarden kid, hold my breath for unusual long for the age, not bothered by cold during winters and no need of gloves or thick clothes to tackle the harsh and deadly conditions. BUT the older I get, and the more you get to learn about human psychology and panics, the more problems you see that you missed to calculate.... Even if I got out of the deck I was sleeping at, then got up to upper deck and having the ability to escape the ship in time with decent clothing on, there is still the problem not knowing if I can find in time the rafters and get on one in time before it was to late? And then the complete blackness, having to fight in the dark and not having the knowledge or possibly enough strenght to use the rafter equipment in time and get them in working condition into the waters (?). With other words, the time is the revolver-and-bullet roulette scenario is what it all comes down to.....

Anders Eriksson is my dads first cousin. So grateful he survived ❤️

This disaster in particular sends chills down my spine, because it was moving through waters that I and pretty much everyone I know move through all the time. The thought that if I was born earlier, I and/ or many of my friends could have been dead. I also remember this disaster every time I’m going to sleep on a ferry during a storm.

Great documentary and great narration. Thanks for making it, from Alv, Norway

Amazing video and great explanations of what happend. I'm 30 and never heard of this until I saw your video. God bless those people on board. Those survivors are so lucky.

The fact that they didn't want the ship refloated or for bodies to be recovered is EXTREMELY suspicious.

What a mystery. Thanks for posting, this is really interesting. It really needs to be solved, especially with such a huge loss of life.

Great documentary! Probably the best one I have seen on this topic!

the music choice is on ploint, it's such a chilling strory.

props to the men in the engine rooms that would take balls of steel to stay down there with that much of a list and keep power on till the last second. Knowing every bit of light you provide may save someones life by allowing them to escape.

RIP to all the people who lost their lives in this horrible disaster. Much strength and love to those who have lost loved ones. I truly hope the truth will be revealed for once and for all. As a Dutchman I truly feel for them. We also lost many countrymen with the MH-17 plane disaster which is also not cleared up about what exactly happened and who is responsible for it.

I'm from Latvia and this is the first time I've heard of this. Great video Tanel

Great, great video. Much more informative than the stuff I have seen on TV in my childhood. Whether or not any of the theories hold true, I don't wish to comment on here. But I do want to say thank you for what looks like a fine piece of research and good narration. Please make more like this :)

Terrifying video, was on the edge of my seat. Very strange to bury a wreck site and not recover the bodies - especially in such shallow water. Never seen that before. Why ? Excellent work on this video. Condolences to all people involved or affected.

Submarine theory falls apart easily. A submarine is designed to stay under water as much as possible. With sea conditions being what they were a submarine would not have been surfaced instead sticking to the calmer waters below. Bomb theory falls apart just as easily. The "hole" you refer to was clearly pushed into the ship meaning if it were a bomv it would have been planted on the outside. The shape of the hole indicates it is more likely a puncture or a stress tear. It is not inconceivable the bow visor was dislodged, fell off under or to the side of the ship then smashed into it before going off into the night. Depending on its construction, namely if there were any air pockets in it, it could have stayed afloat anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes given turbulence and buoyancy. It is highly unlikely this was anything other than a tragic solo accident

I don’t think water ingress from opened bow door is that “absurd” or “unbelievable”. There are also other ferries that sunk in much calmer water. The MS Herald of Free Enterprise 1987 was just leaving port, but sunk in 10 minutes or so just because the crew forgot to close the bow door, nothing was wrong with ship…MS Heraled of Free Enterprise is about the same size as Estonia (length and width) with less with a few less decks. Both ship size are similar, ship type are both Roll-on-Roll-off, and time took to capsize and sink the ship from onset of probable cause are similar (10 minutes for MS Harrell of Free Enterprise and about 15 minutes for Estonia losing its visor completely to rolling 60 degrees) The biggest hole for the submarine theory is simply that, if a submarine did hit MS Estonia, how come no one ever saw one being damaged? Besides, Submarines are not as sturdy as you think, that kind of impact will easily sink one. On top of that, it’s simply not necessary for a submarine follow a ship that closely to “monitor” a ship. MS Estonia is a ferry, the destination is published, a sub can easily identify which ship is which just based on expected arrival time and common route (ships sail in shipping lanes too). And lastly, twice as many Swedish died over Estonian, Russia probably would reframed from attacking a ship like this. Sweden with it’s history of mild hostility with Soviet Union, probably would also not hesitate to bring any suspicion to light (Sweden did treat the sinking as a criminal investigation first, just like the more recent pipeline brust). Both submarine theory and explosion theory have been denounced in 2023 intermediate report. In short, remember Occam’s Razor. As in, the simplest explanation is usually correct.

Very informative video and well made, I'm definitely subscribing.

Why does it have to have been an attack ? A submariner, who himself was dragged in front of the first sea lord for his part in a TV interview about the sub he was crewing, told me that there have been accidents, like subs dragging fishing vessels under from getting caught up in their nets. If there was an excercise this might have happend by accident i.e a collision while making a tactical manouvre. I never realised this was still a mystery. R.I.P. to all those poor bastards who never made it. Over 800 is a lot of folks to lose !!

Headr of Håkan Isefjord, a Journalist who died on a lifeboat that night. His camera film was found but... disapeared it's just mentioned once in the reports but then it just vanished. (He had put it in the lifeboat his body was found on)

Traces of explosives is likely the underwater mission to remove the bow visor. It took 1 month to "find" the bow visor. Rock water had a sonar scanning of the wreck, showing the bow visor on top of the wreck Thats why it was necessary to make up the cover story of the search for the same bow visor, which was blown off the wreck.

Very interesting. Thanks for a great production