First published at www.independent.co.uk 001217 The sinking of the Estonia – Europe's worst transport disaster since the Second World War with the loss of 852 lives – may have been caused by an explosion. Laboratory tests in Germany and the US on two pieces of metal cut from near the car ramp at the wreck's bow have revealed signs of an explosion on the ferry's hull before it sank in the Baltic in 1994, said Kurt Ziegler of the Brandenburg state laboratory.
"The results show changes to the metal similar to those seen by high detonation velocity," said Dr Ziegler. "That would be consistent with explosives such as Semtex or Hexa Composite. That kind of material will send shockwaves straight through the metal and is designed to destroy it."
Peter Holtappels, a marine lawyer and senior partner in the German law firm Ahlers & Vogel, which represents Meyer Werft, the shipyard which built the Estonia, said that the tests were the "missing link" of hard evidence of an explosion.
According to the shipyard's own investigation, nine survivors – all of whom were in different parts of the ship – heard a loud bang at about 1am, just before the ship sank.
Jutta Rabe, a German television producer who organised the dive to collect the samples, said: "The Swedish shipping administration and the president of the Estonia shipping line had described bomb threats to the ship to journalists just after it sank.
"A young Estonian shipping cadet, Paavo Pruul, who was on watch on the training ship Linda in Tallinn harbour, heard radio messages between the harbour master and the Estonia," she said. "They discussed a bomb search and how they had been unable to find anything."
The test results challenge the official inquiry verdict that the ferry foundered because of extreme weather and a design fault. Lennart Berglund, a spokesman for a group of relatives of the Estonia's Swedish victims, said he would push for his government to reopen theinvestigation in light of the new evidence.
The 14-year-old roll-on-roll-off ferry set sail from Tallinn to Stockholm with 989 people on board in September 1994. She sank off the Finnish coast in the early hours of 28 September after her bow doors broke open. The Estonia flooded and capsized in just 35 minutes. Only 137 people were rescued. Survivors reported that water had flooded into the cargo hold from the car ramp area.
The Swedish, Estonian and Finnish authorities convened a joint accident investigation committee which reported in 1997. It claimed that the cause of the sinking was the weak locking of the ferry's ramp. The inquiry team also blamed the crew for failing to cut speed quickly enough. There were bitter disputes between the committee's members at the time, and its conclusions have been widely disputed since.
Most of the ferry's passengers came from Sweden but two Britons were also on the ship. Paul Barney of Pangbourne, Berkshire, survived the wreck after swimming in 30ft waves to an upturned raft. John Manning, who was based in Scandinavia, died.
A conference in May this year organised by survivors and the relatives of victims dismissed the official report. After the conference, Ms Rabe and Greg Bemis, an American millionaire, offered to organise a $200,000 dive on the Estonia in search of new evidence.
Ms Rabe hopes that the results of her investigation – as well as the tests on the metal samples by the Material Testing Laboratory of the State of Brandenburg, the DN Institute for Materials Testing and Material Engineering in Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany, and the Southwest Research institute in San Antonio, Texas – will force a reopening of the inquiry.
Although the wreck is in international waters, the Swedish, Estonian and Finnish governments have banned dives at the site. Sweden has issued arrest warrants for Ms Rabe and Mr Bemis. Brian Braidwood, a former Royal Navy officer, diver and explosives expert, said the laboratory results "provide indisputable proof that the samples were exposed to the effects of an explosion." Mr Braidwood now works for the insurance and shipping industry and was retained by Meyer Werft. He says the explosion must have been deliberate and that it happened just before the ship sank.
But a spokeswoman for Mona Sahlin, the Swedish Industry Minister, did not see the need for a new investigation: "The expedition by Bemis and Rabe is being investigated as a crime and [Ms Sahlin] cannot evaluate their claims until she has seen the evidence."
Kari Lethola, the chairman of the Finnish section of the joint accident investigation committee, was also sceptical, but said: "If it is proven that there was a bomb, then that would be a good case to reopen the investigation. But then it would be better if it was carried out by the police because it will be an investigation of 852 murders."
Bomb blamed for
sinking of the 'Estonia'?
Baltic ferry disaster: Laboratory reports on debris strongly suggest that the 1994 sinking was not an accident, as claimed by an inquiry
By Paul Lashmar, Arlen Harris and Nick Savvides