MS Estonia car deck doors closed

MS Estonia car deck door. Photo: ROV

An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) sent to the car deck of the sunken ferry MS Estonia on Sunday managed to film car deck doors leading to lower passenger decks two of which are intact and closed.

Expedition lead Margus Kurm described the discovery a significant as official reports have so far relied on estimates according to which the doors broke because of water pressure.

Kurm said it is the biggest discovery of the private MS Estonia expedition so far. “The most significant discovery so far is reaching the middle section car deck doors on the starboard side. We saw two sliding doors that allowed access to decks below and above the car deck. It turns out they are intact and closed,” Kurm said.

The former public prosecutor said the find is significant because official reports have proceeded from the opposite. “Earlier investigations have presumed that the middle section doors gave out under water pressure, which is how water made its way from the car deck to lower decks,” Kurm said, adding that other doors leading to lower decks have not been studied yet.

Kurm explained that people who escaped from deck one also said that the doors were closed in their statements. “None of the 22 people who escaped from deck one said doors leading to the car deck were open. On the contrary – they all maintain the doors were closed,” Kurm, who also led the initial MS Estonia investigation, said.

He also recalled that according to the 1994 dive report, divers penetrated 20 meters into the car deck at the time. “This was later denied. Therefore, I do not really know whether they did,” Kurm said.

Based on public information, Sunday was the first day such a thorough investigation of the car deck has been carried out using an AUV in the last 27 years.

Kurm said the AUV managed to get almost 60 meters into the car deck. The AUV was dispatched to survey more of the car deck on Monday morning but the expedition suffered a minor setback when its propellers got caught in a plastic bag.

Asked about the discovery’s meaning in terms of future efforts, Kurm said that future expert assessments can no longer simply presume the middle car deck doors broke. “Calculations and simulations must now consider the fact the doors are intact,” he said.