Swedish prosecutors said they rejected down a plea to revive investigations into the sinking of the Estonia ferry in 1994, which claimed the lives of 852 people, since there was no fresh evidence to imply a collision, explosion, or crime.
The roll-on, roll-off ferry sank in international waters in the Baltic Sea during stormy weather on its way to Stockholm from Tallinn, Estonia’s capital.
A 1997 investigation into Europe’s greatest peacetime maritime accident since World War II revealed that the ferry’s bow shield broke, damaging the bow ramp and flooding the car deck.
According to the report, Sweden’s Prosecution Authority received a request in 2020 to resume investigations after footage from a television documentary revealed holes in the ship’s hull.
“Nothing indicates any collision with a ship or floating object, nor any explosion in the bow. Nor has anything else come to light that gives reason to assume a crime has been committed,” prosecutor Karolina Wieslander said.
“The case is closed,” she added in a statement. The statement did not say who had made the request to resume investigations.
Meanwhile, an Estonian investigation concluded last year that the holes in the ship’s hull shown in the documentary were probably caused by the impact on the vessel on the sea bottom.
