| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 385.1 | Scandalous ship | OSL09::MAURITZ | DTN(at last!)872-0238; @NWO | Tue Apr 10 1990 04:00 | 32 |
| A point missed in the above article was that the ship was sailing
under Bahamas flag; i.e., registered in that country.
True, there is a "least common denominator" set of international
safety (& other) regulations that many "flags of convenience" purport
to adhere to, but enforcement of these will, of course, vary from
country to country. Most responsible maritime countries (e.g., the Nordic
countries) will have their own regulations which are a good notch
stricter and, perhaps more importantly, will have a system for
enforcing them.
One of the immediate after effects of the tragedy will be that Norway
will probably institute a practice of qualifying foreign registered
passenger ferries before allowing them to traffic Norwegian ports
(I get the impression that the US has been doing this for a number
of years). It is uncertain at this point whether it is possible
or practicable to apply this to passanger vessels in general.
From local news coverage, it seems that the owners of the Scandinavian
Star ignored all the rules in the book. The ship had been put into
traffic on this route just a few days before. No life boat drill
had been held. The Lloyds registration certificate stipulated that
48 crew members must be certified life-boat trained (as one of a
number of conditions of operation); at this writing it is not known
whether there were any so trained at all. The litany goes on...
One rather down to earth lesson that I draw from all this is: It
is far from irrelevant what flag a ship flies if you entrust it
to carry yourself or your family.
Mauritz
|
| 385.2 | The Death Toll is Rising... | COPCLU::GEOFFREY | RUMMEL - The Forgotten American | Tue Apr 10 1990 04:39 | 15 |
|
The latest news updates are reporting a possible death toll
exceeding 200. It seems that the 493 passengers mentioned earlier
did not include children, which travel free when with their
parents, and are thus not registered on the passenger lists. The
Swedish firefighters interviewed on TV last night said the job
of extricating the bodies was very depressing due to the large
number of children they've found.
It is incomprehensible that this sort of thing could happen in
Scandinavia, which has a strong tradition of safety at sea and
is on the whole the safest, most secure corner of the globe...
|
| 385.3 | s.c.n discussions | NEILS::SAVAGE | | Wed Apr 11 1990 09:57 | 100 |
| From: [email protected] (Asbjorn Saetran)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Re: Seeking details on the ferry fire
Date: 10 Apr 90 07:38:46 GMT
Organization: University of Tromsoe, Norway
The ferry "Scandinavian Star" was owned by a Danish businessman,
and was operated by a Danish company. The captain was Norwegian. The
crew were from Portugal and the Philippines.
The number of people that died is still rising, monday evening at
least 176 were confirmed dead. Most were Norwegians.
The ferry was towed in to the Swedish port of Lysekil after the
fire, and is still there.
The investigation of the fire is coordinated and lead by the
Norwegian police in Oslo. Their main theory about the cause of the
fire is that it was started by an arsonist.
The conditions aboard the ferry have been criticized. There were
no complete lists of passengers or crew, the fire alarms didn't work
properly, the crew had problems communicating with the passengers
(language) and other things. The maritime declaration is to be held
on Wednesday.
Asbjoern Saetran
Computer Science Department
University of Tromsoe
Norway.
----
From: [email protected] (Thomas Sj�land)
Date: 10 Apr 90 09:30:00 GMT
Organization: Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Kista
The ferry was registered in the Bahamas but has a Danish owner. The
crew were unorganized and consisted of mostly unexperienced Portugese,
Danes and Norwegians. The Norwegian authorities were not informed that
it was used, and claim that they would have checked the safety system
on board, had they known...
The ferry was heading from Norway to Denmark when the fires started
that is said to have killed over 170 people, mainly Norwegian, Danish
and Swedish. The ferry is said to have carried US citizens also. Some
300 passengers were rescued by Soviet, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian
ships that happened to be in the vicinities.
The ship has now been carried to Lysekil, a small city near Gothenburg
in Sweden, not to far away from Oslo, capital of Norway. Malmoe is
about 300 kilometers south of this location.
It took over 4 hours before the fire fighters from Sweden and Norway
came out to the ship, since the position given by the crew had some
mixed up coordinates... Once there, they were unable to work
efficiently since the crew had abandoned the ship in the false belief
that all passengers were safe and the fire fighting equipment on board
did not function.
The company owning the ship (I forgot the name, but if someone is
really interested I can check the newspapers) is unable to come up
with reliable lists of the passengers since "both computer lists were
on board the ship".
The whole mess is now investigated by the Norwegian and Swedish police
and they believe a pyromaniac has started the fires.
Strong demands are now risen to ban unorganised labour from traffic
carrying passengers in Scandinavia.
--
Thomas Sjoeland
SICS, PO Box 1263, S-164 28 KISTA, SWEDEN
Tel: +46 8 752 15 42 Ttx: 812 61 54 SICS S Fax: +46 8 751 72 30
Internet: [email protected]
.......
From: [email protected] (Magnus Rimvall)
Date: 10 Apr 90 14:12:00 GMT
Organization: Schenectady, NY
In article <[email protected]> [email protected] (Thomas Sj|land) writes:
>. . .
>Strong demands are now risen to ban unorganised labour from traffic
>carrying passengers in Scandinavia.
In most non-scandinavian countries the above demand would have been
"Strong demands to ban untrained/unexperienced labor". Is this an
attempt by the Scandinavian labor unions to gain political momentum out
of human tragedy?
Magnus Rimvall
Disclaimer: Any opinions are my own, neither my company of choice or
country of choice have endorsed them.
|
| 385.4 | Followup UPI news wires | NEILS::SAVAGE | | Thu Apr 12 1990 10:04 | 172 |
| From: [email protected] (JULIAN M. ISHERWOOD)
Newsgroups: clari.news.gov.international,clari.news.europe,
clari.news.trouble,clari.news.urgent
Subject: Police say many children died in ferry fire
Keywords: international, non-usa government, government, maritime accidents,
trouble, fire
Date: 9 Apr 90 17:52:08 GMT
Location: sweden
Slugword: ferry
Note: (complete writethru -- fire out, death count, details, updating
thruout; pvs lysekil)
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (UPI) -- Swedish police told Monday of finding
``bodies everywhere'' and ``many dead children'' in the fire-gutted
Scandinavian Star ferry and predicted the death toll from the weekend
blaze could reach 200.
About 358 people were rescued from the Bahamian-registered,
Danish-operated vessel after it erupted into flames at 2:30 a.m.
Saturday during a voyage from Norway to Denmark. Officials in both
Norway and Denmark said early evidence indicated the fire was
deliberately set, as the vessel's captain has contended.
Fire services in the small west coast Swedish harbour of Lysekil
had put out fires on board the vessel by Monday and police and rescue
services were able to penetrate most areas of the charred vessel.
``It is a horrible sight. There are many, many children and it
seems as though there are many more dead than we were led to believe
from the passenger lists,'' said Police Inspector Aimo Laaksonen.
``There are bodies everywhere, piled up high. Parents who have tried to
save their children and are lying on top of them. By the end of the
operation, we may be looking at 200 dead,'' Laaksonen said. He added
that the death toll was likely to rise because groups were issued
tickets but only the group's leader's name was registered, and children
under the age of 7 were not registered at all. ``It is chaos. There are
so many nooks and crannies on the vessel. There are more bodies at
every turn,'' Laaksonen said.
By Monday afternoon the remains of 85 passengers had been recovered
from the gutted and blackened ferry. Each of the bodies was tagged by a
task force of 10 Norwegian policemen, put into coffins and loaded onto
special refrigerated trucks before being sent to Oslo, where
identification is to take place.
The Scandinavian Star was still listing at the quayside Monday and
cars and articulated trucks on board the vessel could not be removed.
``That will have to come when it's safe to do so,'' Laaksonen said.
In Oslo Monday, a 32-member group of pathologists, dentists and
forensic scientists began work to identify the first 43 bodies, which
arrived in the Norwegian capital on Sunday night. Earlier, in Lysekil,
Police Chief Anders Onso said identification in many cases may be
impossible. ``After such a fire has raced through the vessel, the job
will be extremely difficult,'' Onso said.
As the job of removing the dead from the vessel continued, police
in Denmark and Norway began their investigations into the cause of the
fires that hit the vessel on Saturday morning. The Scandinavian Star's
Norwegian captain, Hugo Larsen, told police at least two fires had been
started and said they could only have been set by an arsonist.
Both in Copenhagen and Oslo, investigators seemed to agree that the
fire was most likely the work of an arsonist. ``The chain of events
clearly indicate that someone started the fires. We are currently
checking all known arsonists,'' said Assistant Oslo Police Chief Magnar
Aukrust.
In Esbjerg, Denmark police said they were closely scrutinizing
documents and passenger lists from a similar fire last September on
board the Tor Scandinavia, which burst into flames during a crossing
from Britain to Sweden, killing an elderly couple. Both fires were
reported to have started in bed linen outside cabin sections of the two
ferries.
Severe criticism of safety measures on board, and of the crew of
the Scandinavian Star, continued to flood in Monday as more details
emerged of the chaotic evacuation of the vessel, the lack of trained
personnel and lack of a common language among the Filipino and
Portugese crew.
``Communication is alpha and omega in all safety work. It is vital
that the crew are able to communicate with each other,'' said Ivan
Leth, chairman of Denmark's School of Seamanship. The three
Scandinavian seamen's unions have repeatedly complained of the practice
of registering Scandanavian ships under foreign flags of convenience to
permit the use of inexpensive foreign crews.
There was also criticism of Larsen, the vessel's captain, who left
his vessel apparently thinking all had been saved. A firefighter in
the first group that reached the vessel Saturday told reporters Monday
that when his group entered the ferry, no officers or crew were there
to help determine the layout of the vessel.
Svante Carlsson, the firefighter, said his group had found two
crewmembers and two passengers alive on the vessel. ``But the
crewmembers only spoke Portugese,'' Carlsson said, adding the ship's
engineer and captain had to be called from a nearby rescue vessel to
help organize firefighting.
The firefighter added that equipment on board all seemed to
function properly and had been used by his group, but that the crew had
not seemed able to use it. Larsen told Norwegian national radio that
his crew had been aware of safety rules on board but had not had a
chance to exercise them. ``We were to have run a drill on Sunday,''
Larsen said.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Path: shlump.nac.dec.com!decwrl!uunet!looking!clarinews
From: [email protected] (HANS RUSTAD)
Newsgroups: clari.news.gov.international,clari.news.europe,clari.news.trouble
Subject: Safety measures attacked in fire-stricken ferry
Keywords: international, non-usa government, government, maritime accidents,
trouble, fire
Date: 10 Apr 90 00:55:27 GMT
Location: sweden
Slugword: ferry-criticism
OSLO, Norway (UPI) -- Danish and Norwegian authorities Monday were
accused of negligence by naval experts Monday after survivors of the
ill-fated Scandinavian Star said fire alarms, sprinkler systems and
smoke detectors all failed to work aboard the ship.
Meanwhile, rescue workers in the Swedish port of Lysekil continued
the grim chore of retrieving bodies from the ship. Swedish authorities
did not have a precise figure on how many people died in the weekend
blaze but said 85 bodies had been recovered by afternoon and that the
death toll could reach 200.
``Neither the Danes nor the Norwegians have ever inspected the
ferry. It is criminal they were so apathetic,'' Swedish maritime
researcher Walter Nilsson told United Press International. The ferry
began traveling the Oslo, Norway, to Frederikshavn, Denmark, route
only six days before the fire broke out at 2:30 a.m. Saturday.
International regulations require weekly emergency exercises aboard
ferries. Scandinavian Star Captain Hugo Larsen said although the crew
was aware of safety measures, they had not been drilled. ``A major
fire drill was scheduled for Sunday,'' Larsen said, denying that safety
equipment was faulty.
Firefighters who came aboard the burning ship found the fire
extinguishing equipment in order but said it had apparently not been
used. ``We used the hoses ourselves and everything worked, but it
appeared that nobody on board had tried to use it,'' said Svante
Carlsson, a Swedish fireman among the first to arrive on the ship. He
also said that some of the crew members should have stayed on board.
``The only people alive when we arrived were two passengers and two
Portuguese seamen who seemed left behind, and the two Portuguese could
only speak their mother tongue,'' Carlsson said. ``Everybody else was
dead.''
The first maritime inquiry is to take place Wednesday in
Copenhagen. Carlsson said the ship's engineer and captain had to be
called in from a nearby rescue vessel to assist the firemen with the
layout of the ferry.
In an interview with Radio Norway, Larsen said the responsibility
for safety on board was with the authorities and the company that
classifies the ship. ``It is the responsibility of the maritime
authorities and Lloyd's of London to ensure that safety conditions are
in order,'' he said.
The Scandinavian Star is registered in the Bahamas, but the
Bahamian Maritime Register is reported to have transferred
responsibility for the vessel to Lloyd's Shipping Register, which
classified the ship in January. But Lloyds' representative in
Norway, Steinar Skrastad, refuted Larsen's claim and said that
responsibility for the implementation of emergency lies with the owner.
``Responsibility clearly follows ownership,'' Skrastad said.
|
| 385.5 | Tightness of regulations questioned as court of inquiry convenes | CHARLT::SAVAGE | | Thu Apr 12 1990 13:34 | 221 |
| From: [email protected] (Stein J�rgen Rypern)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Ferry Fire and Labour Unions
Date: 10 Apr 90 18:15:04 GMT
In his <[email protected]> [email protected] (Thomas Sj|land) writes :
>The ferry was registered in the Bahamas but has a Danish owner. The crew
>were unorganized and consisted of mostly unexperienced portugese, danes and
>norwegians. The norwegian authorities were not informed that it was used, and
>claim that they would have checked the safety system on board, had they
>known...
[text deleted]
>Strong demands are now risen to ban unorganised labour from traffic
>carrying passengers in Scandinavia.
Then [email protected] (Magnus Rimvall) writes :
> In most non-scandinavian countries the above demand would have
> been "Strong demands to ban untrained/unexperienced labor". Is
> this an attempt by the scandinavian labor unions to gain
> political momentum out of human tragedy?
I haven't seen any swedish newspapers after the ferry fire, but the
demand to ban 'unorganized labour' doesn't seem to be in the norwegian
news- papers. One issue which have been criticized very hard, though -
is whether more passengers could have been saved if most of the seamen
were scandinavian, instead of newly hired portugese and filipinos.
Language difficulties may have contributed to the disaster.
The owner & administration of the shipping line, Da-No Shipping, have
been criticized over the fact that there have been _no_ fire-fighting
exercises on the ship before it was put into regular traffic, and for
several other serious deficiencies.
The major issue seems to be whether we (Norway,Denmark, Sweden) should
allow ships sailing under a 'flag of convenience' (like liberia,
bahamas or panama), and barely keeping within the rather weak
international safety regulations (the scandinavian ones are much more
demanding), to traffic our ports.
This is the point of attack which the seamens union (or unions) have
choosen. They claim that crewing the ferries with scandinavian seamen,
properly trained, or at the very least demand some skill in a
scandinavian language from all members of the crew would make the
ferries safer.
So, are the unions trying to "gain political momentum out of human
tragedy" ? Yes, probably - but I don't see why they shouldn't do so ?
The most important point is to try to avoid another accident like this
one in the future. In todays 'Dagbladet' (a nationwide daily)
representatives for some of the other major ferry lines claim that they
see no need to make any changes in their operating procedure.
==============================================================================
Stein J. Rypern, Undergrad. I "Cattle die, kinsman die,
Institute of Informatics I You Yourself must likewise die.
Oslo U, Norway I But one thing which never dies,
[email protected] I Is the verdict on each man dead" .. H�vam�l
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [email protected] (JULIAN M. ISHERWOOD)
Newsgroups: clari.news.gov.international,clari.news.europe,clari.news.trouble,
clari.news.top.world
Subject: Grim task of removing remains resumes
Keywords: international, non-usa government, government, maritime accidents,
trouble, fire
Date: 10 Apr 90 18:35:15 GMT
Location: sweden
Note: (6grafld-pickup7thgraf: ``it is -- number of bodies recovered reaches
120)
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (UPI) -- Police Tuesday resumed the macabre
task of removing the remains of charred bodies from the twisted chaos
of the Danish ferry that erupted into flames on a weekend voyage from
Norway to Denmark. Fire and maritime officials criticized safety
measures aboard the fire-gutted Scandinavian Star. Police said the
death toll from Saturday's blaze could reach 200 and that early
evidence indicated arson.
The ship's captain, Hugo Larsen, acknowledged that he abandoned the
ferry knowing there were people still alive on board. ``They were on
the after deck. We knew they were there but could not get through the
flames to them,'' he told Norwegian television. ``We informed the
rescuing ferry of their whereabouts and they sent a boat for them.
``We could not have done more. We stayed as long as we could. But dead
people can't offer any help and I decided that we should leave the
vessel,'' he said.
By late Tuesday, the remains of 120 passengers had been removed
from the gnarled cabins and passageways of the Bahamian-registered,
Danish-operated vessel tied up at the quayside of the picturesque small
western Swedish port of Lysekil.
The only certain figure is that 340 people were rescued, according
to Danish, Norwegian and Swedish police. Larsen had reported 495
passengers and crew on board, which would put the death toll at 155,
but Swedish police said the number of dead could reach 200.
Each of the recovered bodies was marked by a task force of 10
Norwegian police, put into coffins and loaded onto refrigerated trucks
before being escorted to Oslo, Norway, for identification. ``Some of
the bodies are easier to identify than others. Some will be very, very
difficult to identify,'' said Danish pathologist Markil Gregersen
working with the group in Norway. Gregersen appealed to people with
missing relatives to give the emergency identification center a full
list of doctors and dentists. ``This will make identification somewhat
easier,'' he said.
Police in Denmark and Norway continued investigating the cause of
the fires aboard the Scandinavian Star and their working premise was
that they were arson. ``The chain of events clearly indicate that
someone started the fires. We are currently checking all known
arsonists,'' said Assistant Oslo Police Chief Magnar Aukrust.
Danish police said they were scrutinizing documents and passenger
lists from a similar fire last September aboard the Tor Scandinavia,
which burst into flames during a crossing from Britain to Sweden,
killing an elderly couple. Both fires were reported to have started in
the bed linen outside cabin sections of the ferries.
Larsen, the captain, said in the television interview that safety
mechanisms aboard the Scandinavian Star were in good working order. ``A
lot of new technical equipment had been added. The fire alarms worked.
The fire equipment worked. The lifeboats had been tested. The vessel
was in good technical order,'' Larsen said. He rejected any criticism
of his crew. ``A Portuguese or Philipino crew, when it is practiced, is
as good as any other crew. But there were some language difficulties,''
Larsen said.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [email protected] (JULIAN M. ISHERWOOD)
Newsgroups: clari.news.gov.international,clari.news.europe,clari.news.trouble
Subject: Maritime inquiry opens
Keywords: international, non-usa government, government, maritime accidents,
trouble, fire
Date: 11 Apr 90 14:30:06 GMT
Location: sweden
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (UPI) -- Denmark's Maritime Court Wednesday
began its inquiry into Scandinavia's worst ferry fire and Swedish
police said 127 bodies have been recovered from the vessel believed to
have been set on fire by an arsonist. First to give evidence at
Wednesday's court hearing was the ferry captain, Hugo Larsen, the
master of the 10,000-ton Scandinavian Star, which erupted into flames
during a voyage from Norway to Denmark last weekend.
Swedish police estimate 200 people, including many children, died
in the inferno, but say the final death toll may never be known due to
a sketchy passenger list. Larsen gave the number of passengers and
crew on board as 495. The maritime inquiry, which is to determine the
cause of the disaster, is not a criminal proceeding, although witnesses
are required to give evidence under oath.
During Wednesday's proceedings before five judges of Denmark's
Maritime and Commercial Court, Larsen firmly rejected previous
criticism that his vessel's safety equipment had been faulty and his
crew untrained. ``The safety equipment was checked and found to be
in good working order. There were clear, printed emergency instructions
pinned up at strategic positions on the ship and the crew did as much
as anyonbe could expect in the circumstances,'' Larsen told the court.
Moved to larger premises in Copenhagen's Insurance Association hall
in order to accomodate some 300 people, black-clad Court President
Frank Poulsen and four other judges listened intensely as a nervous,
bowed Larsen recounted the tragedy. The court proceedings began
Wednesday with a minute's silence in memory of those killed.
Larsen repeated previous statements he had left his vessel although
he knew there were people still alive on board but that he had been
unable to get through the flames to help them and had sent a boat from
a rescuing vessel to pick them up. ``We stayed on the other vessel
until the fire was partially under control and then we went back,''
Larsen said of himself and the ship's first and second engineers.
The captain said when he arrived back on the bridge of the
Scandinavian Star, he planned further firefighting with a Swedish fire
chief sent from shore with a group of firemen. Finding doors to areas
where the fire was raging open, Larsen said he asked the fire chief why
the doors were open. ``He told me that was their way of doing things,''
Larsen said adding ``I always thought that one should starve a fire of
oxygen.'' Larsen said that within moments of the initial fire alarm, he
switched off ventilation systems on the ship in order not to fan the
flames.
Larsen rejected the suggestion that his Portuguese and Filipino
crew had been ill-prepared. ``In such a situation, all sailors know
what to do and they did it,'' Larsen said. He has previously said
there were no linguistic difficulties among the majority of the crew on
board and they had done as well as any other crew would have been able
to do in the same circumstances.
Expected to last at least three days, the inquiry will produce a
report on the incident which will determine whether any form of
operator or crew negligence caused the fire on the vessel to fan out so
quickly.
As the inquiry got under way in Copenhagen, Swedish police in the
western port of Lysekil said they had removed 127 bodies from the burnt
out shell of the Scandinavian Star and that work to locate charred
bodies was becoming more difficult. Remains of victims still on board
were in those areas of the vessel which burned most fiercely, leaving
little for recognition purposes, they said.
In Oslo, police withdrew a decision to release the identities of
more than 180 people believed to be dead or missing, saying it would be
seen as a death list.
Following a late night meeting in Copenhagen Tuesday, directors of
maritime institutes in Denmark, Sweden and Norway decided to tighten
proceedures for the passage of ships flying flags of convenience in
Scandinavian waters.
The Scandinavian Star, although operated by a Danish company, is
registered in the Bahamas, allowing cheaper, foreign crews to be used.
The directors decided all foreign-flagged ships must undergo safety
checks by a Scandinavian authority before being allowed to ply routes
in the region.
|
| 385.6 | Resents exploitation of cheap foriegn labor | NEILS::SAVAGE | | Tue Apr 17 1990 10:52 | 53 |
| From: [email protected] (Lars-Henrik Eriksson)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Date: 17 Apr 90 08:00:27 GMT
Organization: Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Stockholm (Kista), Sweden
In-Reply-To: [email protected] (David L. Golber)
In article <[email protected]>, dgolber@aerospace (David L. Golber)
writes:
>In article <[email protected]< [email protected] (Lars-Henrik Eriksson)
writes:
>...
>Why don't people just stop boarding the ships that dont have
>union workers? Maybe they think it is really OK?
Most likely they don't know.
>Why dont they inspect ships from time to time?
I am sure they do. However, when a ship is registred in the Bahamas,
say (as this particular ferry was), I would guess that the
opportunities (and possibly rights) of Scandinavian authorities to do
inspections diminishes quite a lot. Anyway, the best way of enforcing a
high security standard is not by inspections but by awareness and
concern among all people involved (witness aviation!).
>In the US, even cars have to pass inspection once a year to be allowed on
>the road. Is there such an inspection in scandinavia?
Yes.
>Who forces the cheap workers to work under those conditions?
>Maybe they think it is their only choice to work under those conditions.
That is the point. They think their only choice is to work under those
conditions. The Swedish trade unions primarily try to make the
employers give the workers the same working conditions that any
Scandinavian employee would get.
>We can't call it anything close to slave labor. It's probably just
>a reflection of the magnitude of the difference between the standard of
>living between scandinavia and where the cheap labor come from.
I don't know about you, but I deeply resent companies operating in or
with countries with a high standard of living trying to decrease their
operating costs by employing cheap labor from other countries *with
those countries' wage levels and work conditions*. That is really
exploiting poor countries for your own prosperity!
-- Lars-Henrik Eriksson
Internet: [email protected] Swedish
Institute of Computer Science
Box 1263 Phone (intn'l): +46 8 75215 09
KISTA, SWEDEN Telefon (nat'l): 08 - 752 15 09 S-164 28
|
| 385.7 | Let's not blame the foreign crew | COPCLU::GEOFFREY | RUMMEL - The Forgotten American | Tue Apr 17 1990 11:29 | 35 |
|
It seems that there has developed a general impression that the
cheap foreign labor (Portuguese and Filipino) was a primary
cause for the magnitude of the disaster.
THIS IS NOT SO!
The crew was never given a chance - they were never told what to
do. They were never trained in firefighting or lifeboat
evacuation procedures. Why, even the "good" Scandinavian
(mostly Norwegian) crew members (including the captain) left the
ship before all passengers were evacuated. Latest counts
estimate that 50 passengers were rescued off the ship AFTER the
foreign crew and Norwegian officers abandoned ship. The bottom
line is that the fault in all likelihood lies with the ship's
Danish charterer and it's Norwegian officers for allowing an
unsafe ship to sail with an untrained crew.
There were examples of heroism from crew members. The staff
captain (second in command), a Norwegian, together with a
Filipino crewman put on breathing apparatus and sortied
again and again into the smoke filled corridors and dragged
people out. They finally had to stop due to exhaustion.
Unfortunately, most of the people they pulled out turned out to
be dead from smoke inhalation.
Another apparent mistake that may have greatly contributed to
the disaster was the inexperience of the firefighters who were
dropped onto the ship. They ventilated the ship (opened doors
and windows) which is standard practice at a house fire.
Unfortunately this fed the fire in the interior of the ship and
allowed it to spread much more rapidly.
The details I've mentioned above have come to light during the
court of enquiry in Copenhagen.
|
| 385.8 | It gets worse | OSL09::MAURITZ | DTN(at last!)872-0238; @NWO | Wed Apr 18 1990 03:43 | 50 |
| I agree with .7; the facts, as far as we are able to gleen them
from the media, seem to bear these points out. The "faultiness"
seems to be in direct proportion to height in the hierarchy.
However, I would add a fairly significant item that has come out
on our news reports; from interviews with both Swedish & Norwegian
attendees at the hearings in Copenhagen. It seems that the
representatives of the owners have actually been allowed to dominate
the procedures, and furthermore, the role of the owners has not
been called into account.
This may be some peculiarity of Danish maritime law, but it seem
as if the owners are actually a part of the "judges panel" and are
not called and questioned as witnesses. One of the panel of (5 or
6?) judges is the attorney for the owners (i.e., shipping line).
From reports, he is the only one who is well prepared every day.
The panel seems to arrive 30-45 minutes late for the proceedings
and basically have little or no questions to ask. The captain, one
of my illustrious countrymen, is permitted to be present during
all questioning of witnesses (i.e., including his subordinates);
this obviously can have an intimidating effect.
The result of all this is that THE most important question does
not seem to have been raised: Was there undue pressure from the
owners to get the ship into money-making traffic as soon as possible
(at the cost of safety)? When the officers are questioned, they
seem totally loyal to the owners (one wonders what the financial
terms of employment are at the moment---and what has been promised
for the future). The General Manager of the owners line (he, at
least, is Danish) is PREVIOUSLY CONVICTED (AND served 30 days in
jail) for breaches of afety regulations.
When these people have been interviewed, by the way, my superficial
impression is that the officers' intelligent level is inversely
proportional to their hierarchical position (who hired these guys?).
The captain does not in any way even sound like a captain (speaking
as the son of a Norwegian sea-captain). The exceptions omong the
officers seem to have been the one mentioned i .7, as well as a
German machine room officer (possibly the chief machinist).
However, before we totally depair of justice, there is another round
to come. A joint-Scandinavian investigating hearing is established,
and this will probably constitute the REAL hearings. On the other
hand, I do not know what specific legal powers they have, but since
they are established by the 3 governments involved and will be led
by a Norwegian Supreme Court judge, I am (perhaps optimistically)
assuming they will "do their duty" in a proper fashion.
Mauritz
|
| 385.9 | Tragic loss of "Estonia" | TLE::SAVAGE | | Wed Sep 28 1994 13:40 | 154 |
| At 01.24 EET (23.24 GMT) Estonia, a ferry on the way from Tallinn to
Stockholm, sent a mayday message saying that the ship had given a list
of 20-30 degrees about 20 nautical miles southeast of Uto, the
southernmost island in the Turku archipelago. The message also said
that the engines of the ship have stopped. After that there was a
total blackout in communications. The ships and rescue helicopters
reaching the site of accident about an hour later saw no signs of the
ship, only some rescue boats and floating debris.
Estonia (formerly called Viking Sally traveling between
Turku-Stockholm) is a ferry 157m long and 24m wide.
--
Kari Yli-Kuha
SQ Consulting, Tampere, Finland
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The wind in the Baltic sea is 27m/s and the water temperature about 8
C, and the ship lies about in 80 meters deep down in the Baltic sea.
The ship belonged to an Estonian-Swedish joint venture and had
previously the name "Viking Sally". "Viking Sally" travelled between
Turku/Aabo and Stockholm and it did not differ from any other great
ships which navigate between Helsinki, Turku and Stockholm. Numerous
Finns (including me) have regularly travelled on that ship after it was
constructed in 1980.
To illustrate the scope of the catastrophe: there is nothing comparable
in the Finnish maritime history. During the wartime one battleship sunk
with almost 300 victims, but that was under war conditions.
The tragedy of "Estonia" could be compared to that of "Titanic".
"Titanic" sank in 1912: 1500 victims, 711 rescued.
"Estonia" sank in 1994: possibly 800 victims, so far 40 rescued.
I still hope that the survival percentage will not remain so low...
sincerely,
Tapani Hietaniemi
Helsinki
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BBC's Stockhom correspondent said that he was uncertain if dead bodies
recovered was included in the figures. There are around 10 ships and 13
helicopters in the area. The head of security of a Silja Line ferry in
the area was interviews over a radio link, and said there were still
life boats and things to be seen in the general disaster area. But
hopes of finding people alive decreases as time goes, because of the
chill.
The ferry, owned by the Estonian state and the Swedish shipping line
Nordstr�m & Thulin, lies approx 90 meters down, on the bottom of the
Baltic Sea. The Estonian president Lennart Meri has declared a day of
sorrow. The prime minister elect Ingvar Carlsson has said that he'll
take initiative to a commission that will increase safety of shipping
on the Baltic Sea.
This is the third major shipping accident in only a few years time, in
or around the Baltic Sea. In 1990 the ferry Scandinavian Star, going
from Norway to Denmark, caught fire and around 150 people were killed.
In january last year the Polish ferry Jan Hevelius sank enroute to
Sweden, and around 50 people perished.
There have also been several cases of ferries hitting grounds, were no
people have died (fortunately) in the last few years.
Swedish TV will continue with extra news broadcasts through the day.
Ahrvid Engholm, Stacken Computer Club, Stockholm, Sweden
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In the recent news in Finnish radio they reported 126 persons had been
rescued from the Estonia. It is surprising the number has still been
growing, despite the water is very cold. Bad news was, that the number
of passengers on board is higher that previously reported, because
there were passengers with free tickets, and children.
The chief engineer of the ship has been rescued, and in an interview he
said, that the front "car gate" (?) was defective and had let in water.
If true, this means that the accident happened like in the case of the
car ferry in the English channel, where the cargo bay door was left
open.
--
Jarmo Niemi,Biochemistry,U.of Turku
[email protected],http://www.utu.fi/~jarnie/
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The TV news said a moment ago that the correct number of passengers on
the ferry Estonia was 967, of which 550 were Swedish (5 Finns only).
The leader of the resque work informed about 100 people having been
resqued so far, the work continues, and only 5 people have been found
dead so far.
Tapio Leino, Technical Research Centre of Finland
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I work two blocks from the University Hospital of Turku, where some of
the Estonia wreck casualties are being brought. A while ago I saw
Swedish helicopter take off right in front of a MediHeli chopper from
Helsinki. There had been an info in the hospital, so here is some
statistics:
- about 125 have been saved so far, about 30 of them are here in Turku now
- one of the Swedish passengers that was brought here early this morning was
suffering of severe hypothermia: body temperature was 26 degrees Celsius!!!
The probable cause of the accident was according to local radio
stations that the outer front gates of ship hadn't been closed properly
and so water was "leaking" onto the car deck. When large amount of
water started moving in 25 m/s storm, the ship had obviously turned on
its side.
Timo Sallinen, University of Turku, Finland
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I just heard on the swedish radio that an Estonian crew member that has
been saved has told the news agency TT: " I was on the lower deck when
I noticed water streaming in through the front (where the cars and
trucks are loaded/unloaded). I had water to my knees and then the ship
started to tilt over".
The radio just sent an interview with a father having her daughter
aboard the "Estonia". She was on a conference trip with her local
union. She worked for the police force in Nacka. Patients are now
coming in to the Stockholm hospitals, but most patients are treated in
Aabo (Turkku) and Mariehamn. At this very moment there is an interview
with a man who had his brother on board, the brother just phoned from
Utoe - he was one of the survivors. They picked him up 06.30 6 hours
after the disaster.
Carl Bildt, the prime minister in Sweden, has ordered all flags on
state buildings to be hauled down. Others are recommended to do the
same. Lennart Meeri president of Estonia has proclaimed a state of
mourning in Estonia. Mr. Bildt is to go to Turkku to meet with the
prime ministers of Finland and Estonia and personally thank the rescue
teams
Mats Winberg
Stockholm, Sverige
|
| 385.10 | Newswire reports | TLE::SAVAGE | | Wed Sep 28 1994 14:09 | 104 |
| TURKU, Finland (Reuter) - The watertight seals on the Estonia ferry,
which sank early Wednesday in a disaster that may have killed as many
as 800 people, were deemed unsatisfactory in an inspection Tuesday,
officials said.
A Swedish maritime safety official, Anders Lindstrom, said the seals
on a ramp that is closed at sea were inspected by two Swedish safety
officials in Tallinn, Estonia, on Tuesday, shortly before the ferry set
sail.
``They had opinions on the ramp, namely that the seal was not in
satisfactory condition," he said.
The Estonia went down in the Baltic Sea off Finland in stormy
weather. The sinking apparently will go down as one of the worst peacetime
maritime disasters in history. The worst was a ferry-tanker collision that
killed 4,300 people in the Philippines in 1987, followed by a ferry
sinking in the Philippines that killed at least 1,000 in 1980.
Leaders of an air and sea search for survivors from the car and
passenger ferry Estonia, which according to unofficial figures had been
carrying 964 passengers and crew, said they had picked up 126 people
from the chilly waters. But 42 bodies had been recovered and 838 people
were missing.
Rescuers said they would continue searching even though the water
temperature was only about 50 degrees and people without any protection
would be unable to survive more than a few hours.
Survivors and rescuers said the ship seemed to have gone down very
quickly.
``It was all over in half an hour," a survivor in his twenties told
Reuters as he arrived at hospital in Turku.
The ferry, on its way to Stockholm from the Estonian capital
Tallinn, sent out a ``mayday" emergency radio signal at about 11:30 p.m.,
saying it was listing badly. Rescue coordinators said the message broke off
shortly afterward, suggesting the vessel had lost power.
Transmitted: 94-09-28 11:57:48 EDT
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
TALLINN, Sept 28 (Reuter) - Flags flew at half-mast on government
buildings in Estonia and people wept openly on the streets on Wednesday
after an Estonian ferry disaster, in which hundreds died, plunged the tiny
Baltic nation into grief.
Declaring a day of mourning, President Lennart Meri told his
stunned nation of 1.6 million to support each other with ``thoughts and
actions.''
The passenger ferry Estonia, on a regular trip from Tallinn to
Stockholm, sank in a fierce storm off southwest Finland in the early hours
dragging hundreds -- many of them asleep -- down into the chill Baltic
depths.
Officials said fewer than 100 people had been rescued in a massive
sea and air operation mounted from Nordic and Baltic states but hampered by
dark and appalling weather.
As the day wore on confusion arose over how many people were aboard
the doomed vessel.
Estonian officials had given a figure of 867 passengers and crew. A
spokesman for Meri said those presumed dead included about 400 Swedes
and 163 Estonians, the latter accounting for most of the crew members on
the 14-year-old vessel.
Others on board came from Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Norway and
Germany.
Later, however, the Finnish head of rescue operations told,a news
conference an unofficial passenger list provided by the Estonian
shipping company showed the total on board was 963.
Meri, in a breakfast-time speech on national radio, said: ``I
declare a day of mourning today. Today we must support each other through
our thoughts and actions.''
In a later television appearance -- his solemn mood matching scenes
of grief in offices around Tallinn and on the rain-lashed streets -- Meri
called on hospitals on islands off the mainland to be ready to receive
casualties and, possibly, bodies.
Estonia's shared grief with the Swedes came naturally to a country
that sees itself has having more in common with Nordic society and culture
since winning independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
The director of the shipping company operating the Estonia, which
was carrying cars and trucks, said he was at a loss to explain the
disaster, which occurred in mountainous seas.
It is ``completely mysterious...in any event, in an accident, the
ship should not have sunk,'' Johannes Johanson, director of the company
Estline, told Estonian radio.
Estline is owned half by the Estonian state and half by Swedish
tanker owner Nordstrom & Thulin AB.
A Tallinn port spokesman suggested the main engines cutting out on
the vessel had contributed to the disaster.
The spokesman, reached by telephone from Moscow, said he doubted
that the ferry's cargo of cars and trucks had shifted.
``My understanding is that for some reason the main engines stopped
and then the storm could do anything it wants with the ship,'' he said.
Radio and television stations cancelled their scheduled programmes
and switched over entirely to broadcasting up-to-date information on the
disaster from port and government officials.
Meri ordered a government commission of investigation to be set up
immediately under Environment Minister Andres Tarand.
Prime Minister Mart Laar, due to step down soon after losing a
no-confidence vote in parliament, said he was sure the tragedy would
not affect relations ``between the different shores of the Baltic states
because we are all mourning those who died.''
He drew a parallel between the tragedy and the deaths of scores of
Estonians who took to boats to flee the Red Army's advance into the
Baltic state in September 1944.
Interfax news agency said Laar was flying to Helsinki on Wednesday.
Estonian television reported that the Estonia was lying 80 metres
(250 ft) down in the Baltic. Thirty or 40 empty lifeboats from the doomed
vessel bobbed on the still heaving seas.
REUTER
|
| 385.11 | Rescue efforts (newswires) | TLE::SAVAGE | | Wed Sep 28 1994 15:01 | 184 |
| STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Helicopter pilot Stefan Carneros flew
through the night, darting among 20-foot waves looking for
survivors of the capsized ferry Estonia. When he flew home at dawn
Wednesday, he had found only one.
The young Estonian woman, dressed only in a nightgown, was
lifted from a lifeboat bobbing in the stormy Baltic Sea. The woman,
in her 20s, could not recall how she left the ship.
```Thank you for saving me,' she told me,'' Carneros said,
after the woman was taken to a hospital outside Stockholm. Doctors said
she was suffering from more than an hour's exposure to the
54-degree water.
Sweden and Finland sent out fleets of rescue helicopters and
ships after the ferry, crossing the Baltic from Estonia to Sweden,
capsized and sank in a storm with more than 850 people aboard.
``We saw about 40 small lifeboats,'' said Carneros.
``Unfortunately most of them were empty.''
Stormy seas and winds topping 56 mph were preventing rescue
operations near the site of the disaster, about 23 miles from the
Finnish island of Uto off the country's southwestern coast.
Swedish rescue worker Patrick Rydell was lowered by winch to
search one enclosed life raft after another. Most were empty.
``The weather was terrible,'' Rydell said.
Rescue pilot Tommy Lindberg said it was the most difficult
operation of his 25-year career.
At a center set up at the port outside Stockholm where the
ferry was to have docked, priests, nurses and psychologist tried to care
for relatives of passengers, who arrived by the dozens.
Paolo Thimo, whose wife was aboard the Estonia, was afraid she
never had a chance because her cabin was on a lower deck.
``I don't know what to do,'' he said.
========================================================================
STOCKHOLM (Reuter) - Relatives of passengers on the Estonian
ferry that sank off Finland waited anxiously for news Wednesday
at the Stockholm terminal where the ship had been due to dock.
``There must be over a hundred (relatives) in the terminal
building and more and more are coming all the time,'' said
priest Magnus Magnusson. ``Some are crying, but most of them are
calm.''
More than half the passengers and crew on the ferry
Estonia, which sank in a storm in the Baltic Sea, were Swedish.
As aircraft and ships searched for survivors, a Finnish
coastguard official said more than 100 people had been rescued.
But doctors held out little chance for many more being saved
from the icy water.
Relatives and a special crisis group of priests,
psychologists, doctors and social workers rushed to Stockholm's
Frihamn ferry terminal where the Estonia had been due to arrive
from Tallinn at 10 a.m. (5 a.m. EDT).
Paolo Thimo said his wife was on board the ferry as a
tourist. ``She had a cabin furthest down on the ship so I don't
think she had any chance of surviving,'' he said.
A man in his 30s, clinging to an older woman's arm, said:
``My wife works on board.''
A couple in their 60s, whose son had worked on the ferry for
a year, walked around hand-in-hand looking devastated.
A group of 52 retirees were also among the Estonia's
passengers.
Flags were flown at half-mast in mourning at the terminal
and at Swedish government offices and parliament.
``The possibility is decreasing that there are any survivors
left,'' said Ulf Samuelsson, a security official on board the
Silja Symphony, another ferry helping with the massive rescue
operation.
``If we're lucky, we could find a few more.''
========================================================================
TURKU, Finland (AP) -- Rescuers fought rough seas and howling
winds Wednesday to search for survivors of an Estonian ferry that
capsized and sank with nearly 1,000 people aboard. More than 800
were missing and feared dead.
About 100 to 125 people had been rescued from the 54-degree
water hours after the ferry Estonia sank overnight in the Baltic
Sea, Swedish and Finnish authorities said. They said rescue workers
found bodies, but declined to say how many. The count was confused
because of the number of rescue workers involved.
The sinking was one of the worst passenger ship disasters in
recent years.
Estonian authorities said the ship's final radio message just
after midnight was: ``We are sinking! ... The engines have
stopped!''
Raimo Tiilikainen, a Finnish Coast Guard spokesman, said 964
people were on board -- 776 passengers and 188 crew members. The
total, based on a preliminary passenger list, was higher than
authorities' initial report of 867 people on the ship.
Hopes for finding anyone else alive were dim because of the
difficulty of surviving in cold water.
``We saw about 40 life rafts. Unfortunately, most of them were
empty,'' said Stefan Carneros, pilot of a Swedish rescue
helicopter. He said waves in the area were up to 20 feet high.
The waves and winds topping 56 mph hindered rescue operations
about 25 miles from the Finnish island of Uto off the country's
southwestern coast.
The Estonia was sailing from the Estonian capital, Tallinn, to
Stockholm, Sweden. More than 500 of the passengers reportedly were
Swedes and more than 150 were Estonians. Among them were 52 elderly
people from Norrkoping, a town in central Sweden.
There was no immediate explanation of what caused the 515-foot
ferry to capsize. Some news reports said the ship sank in five
minutes, while others put the time at closer to 30 minutes.
``A vessel of this size should have no problem in these
winds,'' maritime inspector Esa Saari said in the Finnish port of Turku,
the base for rescue efforts.
One survivor, who identified himself as Henrik Sillaste, told
The Associated Press he saw water leaking through an outer cargo
door that he believed was defective. Sillaste, who said he was a
ship's engineer from Estonia, said water quickly built up in the
hull and caused the ship to list.
Some officials speculated that trucks and cars on board may
have broken loose in the storm and that their shifting weight caused the
ship to capsize. A spokesman for the ship's owners told Estonian
radio that authorities believed both engines stopped
simultaneously, leaving the ferry vulnerable to the wind and waves.
Ships and helicopters from Finland and Sweden were at the
scene. Estonian authorities were sending rescue crews. At least five other
passenger ferries hurried to the scene to help.
``I woke up as the ship was heavily tilted to the left,'' one
of the survivors, Neeme Kaik, told radio station KUKU in Estonia.
``There were huge waves. I got dressed as fast as I could. I ran
out of my cabin to the deck to see what was going on. There was no
message on the loudspeaker about what had happened.''
He said passengers were running on the stairs, and others were
still in their cabins as he left the Estonia.
``There was no activity among the crew, and I did not hear any
messages. I grabbed a life jacket myself and then the boat fell on
its left side completely, with the chimney hitting the water. The
engines did not work,'' he said. ``I managed to jump into a rubber
boat with three other people.''
At least a dozen survivors were rescued by the ferry Mariella,
that ship's information officer, Per Erik Sederqvist, said.
At least 10 survivors were taken aboard the ferry Symphony,
Harry M. Whipple, an American passenger on the Symphony, told The
Associated Press by telephone.
Whipple, the publisher of The Cincinnati Enquirer, said he saw
at least 30 black-and-orange inflatable rafts bobbing in the water,
six to 10 of which had capsized. He said the rafts were enclosed,
preventing him from seeing whether there was anyone on them. He
said helicopters were checking each raft.
Twenty survivors were flown by helicopter to Turku. Two were in
critical condition, suffering hypothermia with body temperatures as
low as 81 degrees, said Dr. Juha Niinikoski at Turku university
hospital.
``We think we have saved the patients,'' he said.
Other survivors had broken shoulders and legs and other
injuries, he said. Two of the patients were teen-age girls who
arrived barefoot and wrapped in blankets.
Eight people pulled from the sea were flown to Stockholm's
Huddinge hospital, but one died before arrival, said Dr. Jan
Kumlien. He said several others were in shock and could not speak.
The passengers included at least 552 Swedes and 163 Estonians,
the Estonian Embassy in Stockholm said. Other passengers were from
Latvia, Lithuania, Canada, Russia, Nigeria, Finland, Norway,
Britain and Belarus.
``This is one of the worst disasters to hit Sweden in modern
times,'' said Swedish Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson. Estonian
President Lennart Meri declared a national day of mourning in his
country.
The ferry was built in 1980 in Germany and had room for 2,000
passengers and 460 cars.
The deadliest maritime accident in the past decade was the
sinking of the ferry Dona Paz in the Philippines in 1987, when
1,749 people drowned. In 1991, more than 460 passengers and crew
died when a coral reef tore open a ferry near the port of Safaga,
Egypt.
========================================================================
MOSCOW (Reuter) - A survivor of the ferry disaster off
Finland said Wednesday he spent five hours on a life raft
floating in the cold Baltic waters before being rescued.
Neeme Kalk was one of about 100 people rescued after the
ferry Estonia, carrying more than 900 passengers and crew from
the Estonian capital of Tallinn to Stockholm, sank in a storm
southwest of Finland.
The Estonian News Agency ETA said it spoke to Kalk, now
recuperating in a Finnish health center at Hanko, by telephone
from Tallinn.
Kalk said he woke up in his cabin and felt the ship swaying
to the left. He ran on to the deck where people were grabbing
lifejackets.
``As the ship was sinking quickly and it became impossible
to stay aboard, Kalk jumped into the sea and climbed onto a
raft,'' ETA said, adding there were three Swedes on the raft
with him.
``The last sight of the Estonia ferry was the bottom which
quickly disappeared into the waves,'' ETA quoted Kalk as saying.
``After five hours on the raft he was rescued by a
helicopter,'' the agency said.
|
| 385.12 | Sea got in through car deck gate | TLE::SAVAGE | | Wed Sep 28 1994 15:30 | 34 |
| From: [email protected] (Antti A Lahelma)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic,soc.culture.baltics
Date: 28 Sep 1994 15:57:41 +0200
Organization: University of Helsinki
The latest news in radio gave the following figures: there were 776
passengers on board and 188 members of the crew, put together 964
people. Of these 126 have been rescued so far, which makes for 838
people missing and, by now, most probably dead. Of the people on board
552 were Swedes, 163 Estonians, 29 Latvians, 7 Ukrainians, 6 Germans, 5
Finns. In addition, some other nationalities were present in smaller
numbers.
According to an Estonian machine operator, Henrik Sillaste, who managed
to escape from the ship through a funnel, the gate of the car deck was
for some reason left slightly open and water came to the deck through
it. The body of water, weighing many tons, that got inside the ferry
made it very unstable, and the wind and the size of the waves
(according to the reports as high as 10 metres) were enough to push the
ship to its side.
When I biked to the university this morning, not knowing the news yet,
I kept seeing flags in half-mast in almost every other house I passed.
"Whew, lots of people seem to have died this morning," I thought. But
the closer I got to city centre, the more I kept seeing flags in
half-mast, and finally it came no longer as a surprise that there were
flags in half-mast in the senate building, presidential palace, the
university, Swedish embassy...
LVX,
--
Antti Lahelma GNOTHI SEAUTON "Tragedy is the farce that involves our
[email protected] TUNNE ITSESI sympathies: farce is the tragedy that
University of Helsinki KNOW THYSELF happens to outsiders." --Aldous Huxley
|
| 385.13 | Estonia: more newswire accounts | TLE::SAVAGE | | Thu Sep 29 1994 10:07 | 179 |
| STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Thirty minutes after the sea began
pouring into the ferry Estonia, it was all over. For most of the
964 people aboard, there was no chance to save themselves before
the ship was swallowed by the frigid, raging Baltic.
``Mayday ... Estonia,'' the ship's radioman called. ``We have
listed 20 degrees to 30 degrees and have blacked out.''
Six minutes later, the ship disappeared off Swedish radar
screens.
From survivors' accounts and news reports, the final minutes of
Scandanavia's worst maritime disaster, in which more than 800
people died:
The German-built ferry leaves the dock in Tallinn, the Estonian
capital, at 7 p.m. (1 p.m. EDT) Tuesday bound for Stockholm.
Most of the 776 passengers are Swedes, many taking the cruise
for its famed smorgasbord, indoor pool, live music and dancing at
the Baltic Bar. The passengers include 70 civilian police workers
from Stockholm attending a union seminar, 21 teen-agers from a
Bible school, and 56 retirees on a group excursion.
At about 8:30 p.m., the ferry runs into heavy weather. The band
stops playing, because the ship is swaying too heavily in nearly
20-foot waves.
Many of the passengers retire, some to cabins nine decks below
the bridge, to sleep out the rest of the 230-mile journey.
Sometime after midnight, engineer Henrik Sillaste, watching via
closed-circuit television, notices water coming in from the front
bow door. Thinking it's rain water, he and the other engine room
workers turn on the ship's bilge pumps.
Elsewhere on the ship, some passengers hear a loud crashing
sound.
Fifteen minutes later, the Estonia's pumps are overwhelmed. The
28 trucks, two buses and several cars in the hold are inundated.
The ferry begins listing to port from the weight of the water.
In the engine room, the water reaches Sillaste's knees.
Neeme Kaik wakes up in his cabin in pitch blackness, throws on
his clothes and runs out onto the deck. People are dashing up the
stairs to the decks where the lifeboats are stored. For those on
the lower decks, the climb is arduous. The weak and elderly are
left behind.
The Estonia is listing 30 degrees off center. Two of the ship's
four engines shut off. Sillaste and his two co-workers abandon the
flooding engine room, climbing up a shaft to escape.
On an upper deck, crew members help passengers into lifeboats.
Kaik grabs a life jacket. As he does, the boat falls completely
onto its left side, and the smokestack hits the water.
At 1:24 a.m., from his post on shore, Finnish Coast Guard Lt.
Ilkka Karppala hears the Estonia radioman's Mayday call.
A second ship responds, asking for the ferry's location.
``I don't know, because we had this blackout,'' the radioman
says. After a few seconds of silence, he comes back and gives
coordinates.
Estonian radio reports the 14-year-old ship's final call of
distress: ``We are sinking! ... The engines have stopped!''
Just after 1:30 a.m., the ship disappears off radar.
As the ship sinks, stern-first in waters more than 180 feet
deep, most of its passengers have failed to reach the deck. Forty
covered lifeboats make it into the turbulent 54-degree water.
Six hours after the sinking, the first survivor arrives by
helicopter at Hanko on the Finnish coast.
Of 964 passengers and crew who boarded the Estonia the previous
evening, fewer than 145 are known to have survived.
========================================================================
NORRKOPING, Sweden (AP) -- Karin Nilsson wanted to go with her
friends from a club for retirees on a trip aboard the ferry
Estonia, but she decided to save her money to have her glasses
fixed instead.
On Wednesday, she wiped tears from her eyes as she waited at a
community center for the elderly for news of her friends, presumed
drowned when the ferry sank in the Baltic Sea.
``My best friend is gone. I can't believe it,'' Mrs. Nilsson,
72, said in a shaky voice. ``Hope has left me now. Maybe the young
can survive such a catastrophe, but for old people it is not
possible.''
Norrkoping, a town of 120,000 people in central Sweden, felt
some of the most acute grief from the disaster that claimed more
than 800 lives. Church bells pealed, the city government called in
special counselors and churches were staying open all night.
The 56 elderly Norrkoping residents went on what they thought
would be a fun-filled cruise, featuring two nights on board the
ferry, prized for its all-you-can-eat smorgasbord, and guided bus
tour of the Estonian capital, Tallinn.
Mrs. Nilsson had gone on trips before with the local branch of
the National Pensioners Organization, to Russia, Germany and
Scandinavian islands.
But she didn't have the $128 for this outing. She decided to
spend some of her fixed income to have her glasses fixed instead.
She learned about the sinking on the morning news and went to
the center, where other friends and relatives of the missing had
gathered.
``People here hugged me and cried, and were grateful that at
least I'm still living,'' Mrs. Nilsson said.
Henrik Dareus, a Protestant minister, tried to comfort the
grieving.
``All we can do is to wait together and be here as a support,''
Dareus said. ``It affects the whole town. Everyone is touched by
what has happened.''
Flags were at half staff throughout Sweden.
``I waved goodbye when they left and wished them a happy
journey. They were so looking forward to seeing Tallinn,'' said the
travel organizer for the group, 72-year-old Einar Jonsson.
He looked eagerly at the latest list of survivors, but no one
from Norrkoping was on it.
========================================================================
TURKU, Finland (Reuter) - At least 800 passengers and crew
drowned in dark Baltic seas Wednesday when an Estonian ferry
capsized in a fierce storm hours after a safety official said
the seal on its bow door was faulty.
The 141 survivors, deeply shocked and suffering from severe
hypothermia after hours in chilly waters, described their rush
to escape as the ship sank without warning.
``There was no time to think. I just ran, ran, ran,'' said
deck hand Silver Linde from his hospital bed.
Rescue officials broke off a huge air and sea search for
more survivors Wednesday evening as darkness fell, and planned
to resume Thursday morning.
But there appeared to be little hope of finding alive any of
the 781 people still missing in one of Europe's worst peacetime
maritime disasters after helicopters and ships rescued 141 and
42 bodies were found.
As Estonia, Sweden and Finland ordered a full investigation
into the disaster, Swedish maritime safety officials said a seal
which made the loading ramp of the ferry Estonia watertight was
found to be ``unsatisfactory'' during an inspection a day before
the disaster.
``They had opinions on the ramp, namely that the seal was
not in satisfactory condition,'' seamen's union leader Anders
Lindstrom told the Swedish news agency TT.
Crew member Henrik Sillaste told Reuters from his hospital
bed in the port of Turku, southwest of Helsinki, that water
forced its way through one of the forward loading ramps.
``On the TV monitor in the machine room, we could see water
rushing in on the car deck. I think the rough seas somehow broke
the entrance to the car deck open.'' Sillaste said.
Many of the missing were feared to have gone down with the
ship after being caught in their bunks when the Estonia sank
within 15 minutes.
At the Swedish ferry terminal, relatives ran about
frantically or sobbed quietly on friends' shoulders.
Paolo Thimo said his wife was on board the ferry as a
tourist. ``She had a cabin furthest down on the ship so I don't
think she had any chance of surviving,'' he said.
Flags were flown at half-mast in mourning at the terminal
and at Swedish government offices and parliament. Official days
of mourning were announced in Sweden and Estonia.
Experts said the swiftness of the capsize meant few escaped
and many who did would have perished from the cold.
``Many of the passengers were certainly in their cabins
asleep and as the boat (would have) sunk very quickly, it must
have been very difficult for many to get out,'' Finnish navy
commander Raimo Tiilikainen said.
Those thrown into the sea would not have lasted more than a
few hours in the chilly waters, experts said.
Many lifeboats overturned in the storm-tossed sea after the
ferry, on a regular trip from the Estonian capital Tallinn to
Stockholm, sank before rescue vessels could reach it.
The 15,500-ton car and passenger ferry sent a brief
``Mayday'' distress signal before going down, saying it had
developed a severe list in waves from 20 to 30 feet high.
Swedish Prime Minister Karl Bildt told a joint news
conference with his Estonian and Finnish counterparts in Turku,
the center of rescue operations, that the Estonia had been
inspected regularly with no complaints.
``But it is clear that the accident investigation must study
this (issue of the defective seal) quickly,'' BIldt said.
Estonian officials said the ferry was carrying around 500
Swedes, 340 Estonians and other people from Finland, Norway,
Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Britain and Nigeria.
At least 18 helicopters from Finland, Sweden and Denmark, a
fixed-wing aircraft, and more than 10 ships combed the area
where the ship sank about 20 miles from the Finnish island of
Utoe.
A port spokesman in Tallinn said the Estonia's main engines
appeared to have cut out, adding: ``My understanding is that for
some reason the main engines stopped and then the storm could do
anything it wants with the ship.''
Andres Berg, deputy chairman of the Swedish company
Nordstrom & Thulin, half-owner of the 15,500-ton ferry along
with the Estonian state, said the ferry should have been able to
drift without engines, even in very rough sea.
|
| 385.14 | | BHAJEE::JAERVINEN | Ora, the Old Rural Amateur | Thu Sep 29 1994 10:29 | 99 |
| PM-Ferry Sinking, 1st Ld-Writethru,0763
Search for Estonia Wreckage, Appeal to Relatives for Identification Help
Eds: Leads with 13 grafs to UPDATE with search beginning for wreck, count of
survivors lowered to 138, medical examiners asking for relatives' help in
identifying bodies. Picks up 6th graf pvs, 'Two Swedish ...'
AP Photos XTUR102,103, STO123, FRA11 AP Graphics FERRY SEQUENCE, FERRY SINK1,
FINLAND FERRY
By MATTI HUUHTANEN
Associated Press Writer
TURKU, Finland (AP) - Salvage workers were searching for the sunken wreck of the
ferry Estonia this morning, as authorities asked grieving relatives to help
identify dozens of bodies recovered from the frigid Baltic Sea.
Helicopters and ships from Finland and Sweden were criss-crossing the area where
the Estonia capsized and sank in a storm early Wednesday, but did not expect to
find any more survivors of one of the world's worst maritime disasters. The
water temperature was 46 degrees.
Just 138 people survived out of nearly 1,000 passengers and crew aboard when the
ferry, en route from Estonia to Sweden, capsized in a storm, Finnish authorities
at rescue headquarters in Turku said this morning.
The death toll is believed to be 826, the authorities said. Figures on both the
dead and survivors have fluctuated because of confusion among the nations
participating in the rescue.
A board of inquiry was expected to focus on the seals on the ship's large bow
door, used to load vehicles and cargo. A surviving ship's engineer said water
began pouring through it about 30 minutes before the ferry went down.
Survivors said that as the ship's hold filled with water, the vessel listed over
to port in three big lurches. The engines stopped, power went out and the ferry
sank, bow up.
Ships were using sonar to look for the Estonia's sunken hull, believed to be 260
to 290 feet under water, said Raimo Tiilikainen, the Finnish coast guard
commodore in charge of the rescue and salvage operations.
A robot camera will be used to examine the wreck and possibly spot bodies,
Tiilikainen said at a news conference.
Dr. Aki Linden, the chief medical examiner, appealed at the news conference for
relatives to send in pictures to help identify bodies. Forty-two bodies are
waiting to be claimed in Turku.
But medical examiners cautioned it will be difficult to identify bodies that
were disfigured by cold water and exposure to the elements.
Linden said that in some cases relatives may have to send in hairbrushes, which
could provide hairs needed for sophisticated DNA testing.
"If we have fresh corpses to study, they can be identified by their physical
appearance," Linden said. "But as time goes by, deterioration becomes advanced.
It's hard even for relatives to identify them."
Two Swedish safety inspectors criticized the front door seals before the ferry
left Tallinn, Estonia, on Tuesday night bound for Stockholm. They found the
seals worn and discovered that straps used to hold trucks and cargo in rough
seas were torn.
But the deficiencies were not enough to sound an alarm, said the lead inspector,
Ake Sjoblom. Besides, the Swedes would have had no authority to prevent the ship
from sailing since they were in Estonia only to train local inspectors.
"Nothing we saw indicated there should have been an accident. Absolutely
nothing," Sjoblom told Swedish television, perspiring and upset. "There are
always problems in a big ship."
The ferry was sold to Estonia two years ago following the Baltic state's
independence from the Soviet Union. Its Swedish crew was replaced by Estonians,
whose salaries are considerably lower.
"It sails cheap, but that does not mean it sails worse," Sjoblom was quoted as
telling the Swedish news agency TT.
But the head of the Swedish Seaman's Union, Anders Lindstrom, said that in
Estonia, "from what I understand, no inspections are carried out at all."
Across Sweden and Estonia, where most of the dead came from, there was shock and
disbelief. The ferry was a short holiday favorite for many. Organized groups
from Bible students to retirees were on the ferry when it went down in 260-foot
deep waters.
Special counselors were called in to comfort relatives of the lost. Flags flew
at half staff in Estonia, Finland and Sweden, where churches stayed open late
Wednesday to offer solace.
Newspapers published extra editions throughout the day Wednesday and television
stations cancelled regular programs to follow the tragedy.
A Swedish television channel pulled the movie "Jaws" from its Wednesday night
programming in deference to the grieving.
|
| 385.15 | A reconstruction of events | TLE::SAVAGE | | Tue Oct 04 1994 12:33 | 89 |
| From: [email protected] (Yli-Kuha Kari)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic,soc.culture.baltics,soc.culture.soviet,
relcom.politics
Subject: Course of events? (was: Re: 967 onboard, about 100 resqued!)
Date: 04 Oct 1994 13:45:37 GMT
Organization: Tampere University of Technology
After the pictures have been taken and it's been verified that the bow
door (or visor) is lacking it is getting more and more clear what
actually happened in the unfortunate ferry. I've made this summary
according to papers and the international commission who have
interviewed the rescued crew members and passangers.
Note: this is only my interpretation of the events. If others have
different views, please, feel free to comment. For clarity I've used
the Finnish time (or EET) throughout the article. Convert them to your
timezone.
At 12.00 EET (=Finnish time) the captain changes course from west to
more south and decreases the speed from 15-16 knots to eight knots.
This can be verified by the Uto" fort radar station's observations. At
the same time one of the crew members, a fireman, makes his hourly
routine check around the ship and on the car deck and doesn't notice
anything exceptional. The course change and the decrease of speed was
_probably_ made to turn the ship more to the wind and thus make the
trip more pleasant to those passanger who were still in the restaurants
and night club. The course could be corrected later when the
restaurants would be closed and people sleeping.
Shortly before 01.00 EET the speed was lowered to five knots. This
again according to Uto" radar observations. The ship maintained this
speed the rest of the time.
At 01.00 EET the fireman checking the ship saw that the car deck was
still completely dry but he heard some loud noise from the bow, went
up to the bridge and reported about his observation. He was sent down
to find out about it but he never reached there because of alarmed
people who were rushing up from the lower decks. Obviously at this
point the 60 ton bow door had ripped off tearing large holes to the
steel plates of the ship thus letting the water in to the car deck and
possibly to the engine room. The lack of bow door (or visor) puts
enormous pressure to the inner bow door which starts to leak from the
sides and gradually gives in - this was reported by the third engineer
Margus Treu yesterday.
At 01.10 EET the captain starts to turn the ship to the right -
obviously as an attempt to turn the stern to the wind - but due to low
speed and excess water on the car deck the ship has lost much of its
manoeuveribility and turns slowly. When the ship is sideways to the
wind, the waves and the wind throw the water on the car deck on the
right side and the ship lists heavily.
At 01.24 EET the distress signal is sent which says that the list is
20-30 degrees. The inner bow door has obviously opened and more and
more water is pooring in. Margus Treu was ordered to try to balance the
ship using ballast tanks but that was impossible because the ship had
already listed so much that the left side ballast tank holes were
already in the air.
The main engines stopped and Treu started the reserve power engines
which are on the eighth deck and left the engine room. At that time the
ship had listed more than 60 degrees so that he had to run on the
walls. Coming out he heard that the reserve power engines were
running.
At 01.35 EET approaching M/S Mariella sees the the lights of Estonia.
At 01.48 EET Uto" radar station loses connection to Estonia, the ship
sinks.
At 02.30 EET Mariella reaches the area and starts to lead the rescue
operations.
It is still not clear why the bow door ripped off. A Finnish member in
the commission thinks that one of the lower fastenings had first broken
putting more pressure to the other fastenings until they broke in the
storm. Whatever the reason the above course of events, if true,
reveals that the people sleeping in the cabins didn't have much time
time to rescue themselves.
--
_ , Kari Yli-Kuha
' ) / SQ Consulting, Tampere, Finland
/-< __. __ o e-mail: [email protected]
/ ) (_/|_/ (_<_ phone: +358 31 3165 200 fax: +358 31 3165 201
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Syvyydest� huudan nime�si, Herra.
|
| 385.16 | Know what happened but not the cause | TLE::SAVAGE | | Tue Oct 04 1994 12:57 | 59 |
|
TURKU, Finland (Reuter) - The bow door of the ferry Estonia
was torn off, allowing water to flood in and sink the ship in
heavy seas with a loss of more than 900 lives -- but why it
happened remains a mystery.
Video film of the wreck, released at a news conference in
this Finnish port, showed the bow door, or visor, which is
supposed to swing up into the air in port, was missing.
Accident investigators, from Estonia, Finland and Sweden,
said a locking device on the moveable outer bow door had failed
but they could not yet say why.
``We now know how it happened when water gushed into the
ship ... but we still don't know what caused the catastrophe,''
Andi Meister, the Estonian chairman of the board of inquiry,
told reporters Monday.
About 912 people died last Wednesday when the 14-year-old
ship, sailing from the Estonian capital of Tallinn to Stockholm,
sank off the southwest coast of Finland in stormy weather.
Only 137 people survived, 93 bodies have been recovered but
around 819 more bodies are believed to be entombed in the ship's
wreckage, lying in 260 feet of water, according to figures
released Monday.
The three-nation board of inquiry, meeting in Turku, would
continue to study the video film Tuesday.
``The hardest question remains to be answered. Why did the
locking mechanism fail?,'' Swedish board member Olof Forsberg
said, adding it might be possible to remove parts from the wreck
to examine them.
Investigators will try to find the bow door, believed to be
on the Baltic Sea floor not far from the sunken Estonia.
``It is important to find it, but I believe we can find out
about the cause of the accident without the bow visor,'' said
investigator Tuomo Karppinen.
Questioned about possible causes of why the bow door came
loose, Lehtola said they could be technical, or human, but they
can also be because of the rough sea conditions.
The board of inquiry, confirming reports that the bow door
was responsible for the sinking, said in a statement:
``The water-tight bow ramp that was located behind the visor
is still in place, although there is a gap of about one meter
(3.3 feet) along its top edge, which has allowed water to flow
onto the car deck.''
Footage of the stricken ship was taken by remote-controlled
underwater vehicles equipped with cameras.
The film showed the words ``Estonia Tallinn'' on the side of
the ferry before zooming in on a hole in the bow of the ship
where the bow visor should have been.
Computer analysts say 13 inches of water on the ferry's car
deck would be enough to start major rolling which would be
virtually impossible for a ship's captain to correct.
The pictures appeared to show a metal mounting into which a
steel lock pin was supposed to fit. The pin and locking ring had
been broken away and the pin was dangling as if ripped out.
The disaster has prompted urgent checks on other roll-on,
roll-off ships in Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway.
A Danish-Swedish roll-on, roll-off ferry was withdrawn from
its route between Sweden and Denmark on Monday after a sea
inspector found faults with its bow door, the company said.
|
| 385.17 | Estonia: evaluation of the rescue operation | TLE::SAVAGE | | Thu Oct 06 1994 10:37 | 70 |
| From: [email protected] (Ahrvid Engholm)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.nordic
Subject: Rescue operations criticism
Date: 6 Oct 1994 01:50:56 GMT
Organization: Stacken Computer Club, Stockholm, Sweden
Some critical voices have been heard about the rescue operations after
the M/S Estonia disaster. The criticism falls rather equally on both
Swedish and Finnish authorities.
Some views. (I base this on Swedish newspaper reports.)
The Swedish maritime rescue authorities got the alarm rather late from
their Finnish collegues. The Estonia sent out their Mayday ca. 0.24
(Swedish time), but the Swedish rescue center got the alarm 0.55, when
the rescue center on Aaland phoned them and asked if they had had heard
that the Estonia was in trouble. The Turku rescue center, in charge of
the operation, didn't contact them directly until later.
The Swedish helicopters took time to get airborne. The alarm went 0.55,
and the first one was in the air 1.35 (they are contracted - an
agreement between the rescue service and the navy - to have a 1 hour
respons time during night, so this was slightly better than maximum).
The rescue center in Turku didn't request even more helicopters (apart
from the ca. 15 being in the air), due to the risks of helicopters
colliding. Swedish helicopter pilots says more helicopters could have
been allowed in. There were two more helicopters in a navy base in
Lule� that were not used at all. (Though Lule� is a bit off, maybe two
hours flying time. It is not further away than Denmark, though, from
which helicopters arrived.)
There were mechanical failures on the hauling equipment on three
Swedish helicopters. "They were not fit for these bad conditions", says
helicopter crew members. After these failures - when the helicopters
were not full at all - the helicopters had to go back to base to be
fixed (all the way back to Stockholm, 50 minutes flying time). Some of
this equipment is 20 years (the paper Dagens Nyheter even says 30
years!) old. "We could have saved more lives if the equipment had been
fit", says helicopter crew members.
There was almost no equipment at all on the ferries of Viking and Silja
Line in the disaster area fit to take up people. Their equipment is
made to make evacuation possible, not the other way around. They had to
improvise. The Viking Line ferry Mariella sent down a conference
steward with a diving suit to help people. They sent down their own
rubber floats, but the motors weren't strong enough to raise them
again.
The Estonia Mayday was not heard by Swedish costal rescue centers. The
range of the transmitter used was only 150 km (which is just on the
edge of range to these stations). There was a stronger transmitter on
the Estonia, but it is not clear why it wasn't used.
Swedish authorities are right now unable to help the Finns with the
underwater investigations. The Swedish navy has a rather capable sub-
marine rescue vessel - which now is in port to be reconstructed. Even
if the work on it would be speeded up, it is not fit for service in
less time than three months.
The rubber boats of the Estonia was of a poor design. Some of them
floated upside down. They were not marked with numbers, which made it
more difficult for the helicopter crews. (They manually investigated
all rubber boats. If each had a number, the crew could have spread the
news that "Boat No 13 is checked, don't bother". Now they had to make
double and triple checks.)
It's a bit sad that some many things were wrong, isn't it? However, the
rescue centers, the helicopters, everybody did the best they could
given the circumstances. It was an extremely difficult operation.
|
| 385.18 | Recorded radio messages | TLE::SAVAGE | | Mon Oct 17 1994 09:58 | 50 |
| HELSINKI, Finland (AP) -- ``It's really bad! This looks really
bad here now!'' a crew member of the ferry Estonia shouted
desperately in a radio message before the ship sank in the Baltic
Sea, killing more than 900 people.
Investigators on Thursday released a six-minute recording of
messages between the Estonia and nearby ships on Sept. 28, when the
ferry capsized in heavy seas off Finland.
They hope the tape will indicate what caused the ship's bow
door to be ripped off, and how crew members responded.
The investigators revealed that, contrary to earlier reports,
there had been two distress calls minutes before the tragedy.
A first call, ``Mayday, Mayday,'' came around 1:20 a.m.,
prompting radio operators on nearby ships to turn on their tape
recorders. That call apparently was not heard on shore.
The second distress call -- the one reported after the sinking
-- was logged four minutes later, accident investigators said.
``We don't know who was talking on the Estonia, but we expect
someone will be able to recognize the two men's voices,'' said Kari
Lehtola, a member of the investigating commission.
In the second call, a calm voice called out to ships on a VHF
radio emergency channel, identifying the ship as the Estonia.
Seconds later, the voice was heard saying, ``Mayday, Mayday.''
The Silja Europa ferry, sailing nearby, answered in English:
``Are you calling mayday? Estonia, what's going on? Can you
reply?''
Then a different voice on the Estonia replied, in Finnish:
``Good morning. Do you speak Finnish? ... We have this problem.
We have a bad list to the right, I believe it's 20 to 30 degrees.
Could you come and help and ask Viking Line also.''
At that point the conversations were only in Finnish. The Silja
Europa asked for a location. The answer came:
``We have a blackout. We cannot get [the ship's position] now.
I cannot say what it is.''
Then minutes later the radio crackled again, ``Silja Europa,
Estonia ... Are you coming to help us?''
Silja Europa replied that help was on the way, but that it
needed the location. The voice from the Estonia repeated that the
blackout had left them blind.
Many seconds later, the same person came back and gave a
location, apparently relaying the ship's coordinates as someone
else was shouting them to him.
Then came the desperate message, in an urgent voice:
``It's really bad! This looks really bad here now!''
Silja Europe said help was on its way.
Seconds later, a barely audible voice from the Estonia crackled
something inaudible, then ``...you said.''
Then silence.
Only 136 people survived the accident, mostly young men.
Rescuers found 92 bodies. The rest are believed trapped in the
ferry at a depth of 180 to 280 feet.
|
| 385.19 | Bow door found | TLE::SAVAGE | | Wed Oct 19 1994 14:09 | 32 |
| STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- The 56-ton front door that was ripped
off the ferry Estonia, causing it to sink last month with more than
900 people aboard, was found Tuesday on sea floor.
Investigators first using sonar and then a camera-euqipped
robot located the visor-like door about two kilometers (1.3 miles) west
of the wreck on the sea floor, said Kari Lehtola, a member of the
investigation commission.
Lehtola said the door was lying on the bottom about 76 meters
(250 feet) below the surface. It is ``very visible'' in the
electronic images sent up by the robot and is not embedded in mud,
he said.
The door was torn off its hinges after locks failed during the
violent Baltic Sea storm on Sept. 28, investigators have said. The
ship flooded with water and sank quickly.
Fewer than 140 people have survived.
The investigating commission, comprised of Swedes, Finns and
Estonians, had said it may be unable to make a final conclusion
about why the locks failed without examining the door.
With the ``detailed'' images recorded Tuesday by the undersea
robot, called the Sea Owl, a conclusion might be possible without
raising the bow door, Lehtola said Tuesday.
But the pictures still must be analyzed before a decision is
made about whether to retrieve the door, he said.
Officials also were deciding whether to try to salvage the
entire ship, or try to retrieve bodies from it somehow.
Investigators this week disclosed that ship sank at 1:48 a.m.
(2348 GMT), 24 minutes after sending its last distress signal at
1:24 a.m. (2324 GMT). The conclusion was based information obtained
from a Finnish naval radar station.
It remained unclear, however, exactly what the Estonia's
officers know about the ship's condition and how much time passed
before they sent the distress signals.
|
| 385.20 | To raise or not to raise the Estonia... | TLE::SAVAGE | | Fri Oct 21 1994 11:32 | 49 |
| STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Still grieving for victims of a deadly
ferry sinking three weeks ago, Swedes are divided over whether to
raise the wreck of the Estonia and recover more than 800 bodies
inside.
Barbro Silveus opposes disturbing the watery grave more than
180 feet deep. She still pictures her daughter, son-in-law and their
5-year-old child lying together in peace at the bottom of the
Baltic Sea.
``I think about them holding tightly to one another,'' the
69-year-old grandmother told the Dagens Nyheter daily newspaper.
``They'd never let go of little Karin. She was the dearest thing.''
Michael Fridebaeck, however, is rallying support for letting
salvage crews raise the ferry.
``I've spoken to about 1,000 relatives, and all of them want
the ship brought to the surface,'' said Fridebaeck, 23. His mother,
Christina, was among those killed.
Only 94 bodies have been recovered of the more than 900 people
who died during the Estonia's storm-wracked voyage from the
Estonian capital of Tallinn to Stockholm. Thirty-eight bodies were
returned to Tallinnn on Thursday, with another 28 sent home to
Sweden.
Since more than half the victims from the Sept. 28 tragedy were
Swedes, the Estonian and Finnish governments are likely to follow
Stockholm's lead in deciding the fate of the sunken ship off the
Finnish coast.
Sweden's role is likely to cause months of headaches for Prime
Minister Ingvar Carlsson's new government, which has set up a panel
of clerics, psychologists and others to make recommendations.
Beyond the feelings of shattered families, the government will
face difficulties that include finding enough morgue space to
preserve the corpses until they can be identified. Sweden has only
15 forensic pathologists qualified to do the painstaking work.
The Swedish government says money doesn't play a role in
deciding on a salvage operation. But the government may be
hard-pressed to pay a cost estimated at $69 million to $138
million.
Also controversial is the possibility that divers may bring
some bodies up one-by-one while leaving the wreck on the sea floor.
``What if the divers say afterwards they couldn't go through
the whole ferry, and they only recover a limited number of bodies?''
asked Olof Forssberg, the head of the Swedish commission
investigating the tragedy.
``What do the people say who don't get their relatives back?''
Transportation Minister Ines Uusmann said Wednesday that
victims' relatives seem to be divided over whether to raise the
ferry.
``Whatever decision is reached, it's going to arouse strong
feelings,'' he told a news conference in Stockholm.
The government isn't likely to make a decision until next year.
|
| 385.21 | Tragedy leaves children orphaned | TLE::SAVAGE | | Mon Oct 24 1994 12:56 | 43 |
| STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Anna and Katja's mother was among the
hundreds of people who went down with the ferry Estonia three weeks
ago. Now, the Estonian sisters' future may depend on help from
across the sea where their mother lies.
Since Scandinavia's worst shipwreck, which claimed more than
900
lives, average Finns and Swedes have reached out to help their
Estonian neighbors -- even though most of the victims were Swedish.
``In Sweden there is a functioning network. People don't
urgently need financial aid here. In Estonia, hardly anyone is
insured,'' said Anne Parik at the Swedish Red Cross.
Despite recriminations over the accident, Finnish and Swedish
church and private aid groups are giving Estonia nearly all of the
donations they are receiving, estimated so far at more than
$300,000.
The money is going to kids like Anna, 7, and Katya, 12, who
last saw their mother at Katya's birthday party the night before she
went to work on the ferry as a tour guide, aid officials told the
Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
Anna and Katya, whose last name was withheld, are now living
with their ailing grandmother Valentina, an ethnic Moldovan who
does not qualify for pension payments in Estonia to support the
shattered family.
Their story is one of many. More than half of the 132 Estonian
children who lost at least one parent in the ferry disaster are now
orphans, according to the Estonian Red Cross.
Many of the children still don't understand that their parents
will not be coming home, Riina Kabi, of the Estonia Red Cross, told
a Swedish newspaper.
``This is of course as tragic for the Swedish children who lost
their parents in the Estonia catastrophe,'' Kabi said. ``But in
Estonia, there's also a financial dimension. We're a small, poor
nation.''
Parik, of the Swedish Red Cross, said the minimum amount needed
to support one person in Estonia is about $140 a month. At least
1,000 people are thought to need assistance at least until the end
of the year, she said.
The Estonian state is expected to start paying aid in January,
she said. The North Estonian Bank has opened an account in the
United States for people who wish to help victims' families.
The Estonia, carrying more than 1,000 people, sank quickly in
the stormy Baltic Sea in the early hours of Sept. 28. Just 136
survived.
|
| 385.22 | Victim name packing | TLE::SAVAGE | | Tue Nov 29 1994 08:44 | 47 |
| STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Insurance companies have been hit by
a number of false claims since the Estonia ferry sinking, including
one by a man who said his live daughter was dead.
The disclosures nearly two months after the sinking included
reports that Estonian organized crime groups had made so many
attempts to pack names onto the passenger list after the tragedy
that officials had to rewrite it five times.
The official number of passengers fluctuated wildly after the
Sept. 28 sinking, from around 800 to the latest estimate of 1,049.
Authorities believe 913 died, but have admitted they may never know
the exact number.
The number of survivors was 136. Only 94 bodies were recovered.
The rest are believed entombed in the wreck.
So far, only one insurance company, the huge Swedish firm
Folksam, said it had paid part of a claim that turned out to be
false.
In a report to the Stockholm police, according to the news
agency TT, a man insured by Folksam told the company that his
daughter was among the victims.
The man made such a convincing impression on Folksam personnel
that they granted him an advance of 5,000 kronor (dlrs 685) to
travel to Finland to take part in the identification of the bodies,
TT said.
When Folksam looked into the matter more thoroughly, it
discovered the man's daughter was alive and well. It was unclear
whether the man's daughter even knew about it, and whether he would
be charged.
According to Folksam and other insurance companies, a number of
people submitted false claims in the aftermath of the ferry
catastrophe, TT reported. It did not say how many.
After the sinking, there was speculation that criminal groups
in Estonia were trying to put names on the passenger list in hopes of
collecting insurance money or disguising the true fate of people
who disappeared elsewhere.
A representative of the International Federation of Transport
Workers, Borgtor Kjaernessted, told TT that he overheard Estonian
officials after the sinking complaining about the problem with
false names.
Kjaernessted did not identify the Estonian officials, and his
account could not be confirmed.
The only way to be sure about the number would be retrieving
the bodies. Among the options, Swedish authorities were considering
sending down divers to find bodies in the wreck. That might require
rolling the whole ship to gain access to all sides.
Another option was filling the ship with sand to ``bury'' the
dead forever and prevent plundering. Officials said looting was one
of the main concerns of relatives.
|
| 385.23 | Structural regulations tighten | TLE::SAVAGE | | Fri Dec 02 1994 11:08 | 34 |
| STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Nordic navigation authorities agreed
on stiffer rules Thursday that would require stronger hinges and
better monitoring of cargo doors on ferries.
The rules, which still must be approved by maritime officials,
were drafted in the wake of the Estonia ferry disaster, which sank
Sept. 28 after its door locks failed.
More than 900 people died.
Insurance companies and ferry lines at the time acted quickly
to weld shut the doors and visors on ships. But only the Finnish
government issued a blanket order for weldings.
The navigation authorities from Sweden, Finland, Norway and
Denmark, meeting in Helsinki, agreed on rules that would require
hinges on all ferries to be reinforced or replaced, the Swedish
news agency TT reported.
Inspectors had found the weak point to be locks and hinges,
rather than the plates that hold them, said Joakim Heimdahl, an
official from the Nordic Sea Navigation Board.
``In many cases, one can see certain sections need replacing or
reinforcing,'' Heimdahl said, referring to ship inspections in the
past two months.
Shipping lines would have the option of upgrading the doors, or
welding them shut permanently, Heimdahl said. The rules would apply
to all doors, whether hinged at the side or on top -- as was the
Estonia's front visor.
The rules also would require improved monitoring of the doors
while the ship is underway, including closed-circuit cameras or
other sensors, TT reported.
Heimdahl conceded that the rules may mean ``sweeping, costly''
changes for older ships, apparently one reason why the decisions
were not taken sooner.
Agreement by the navigation board was the first hurdle. The
proposals were referred to the Nordic Marine Safety Inspection
Board, which meets Dec. 13, TT reported.
|
| 385.24 | Underwater gravesite | TLE::SAVAGE | | Fri Dec 16 1994 13:50 | 33 |
| STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) -- Sweden decided Thursday to leave more
than 800 bodies inside the sunken ferry Estonia and preserve the
wreck as a grave on the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
The long-awaited decision immediately drew fire from some
relatives who had hoped to retrieve the bodies of their loved ones.
``This is one hell of a stupid decision,'' Kerstin Henriksson,
a relative of two of the victims, told the Swedish news agency TT.
``It's a question of money.''
During the nearly three months since the disaster, debate has
been intense among supporters and opponents of a salvage that would
be costly both financially and emotionally.
``The government's decision is that the Estonia with the dead
shall remain in the sea,'' a somber Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson
said in announcing the decision during a speech to Parliament.
Although technically feasible at an estimated cost of $67
million, officials believe they would never be able to retrieve all
818 bodies or identify them with certainty.
Carlsson said the emotional toll on salvagers would be intense
and unnecessary, particularly on divers who might have to search
for bodies in the wreck. He said the monetary cost of raising the
ship had ``played absolutely no part'' in the decision.
The decision was taken, Carlsson said, after consultations with
the Estonian and Finnish governments and all parties in the Swedish
Parliament. Opposition leader Carl Bildt said he agreed with the
decision.
The prime minister said the site where the Estonia sank, about
23 miles southeast of the Finnish island of Uto, would be legally
declared an underwater grave.
To avoid desecration, the sunken wreck will be sealed and
covered as soon as the weather permits, Transportation Minister
Ines Uusman said. She said the ship would be covered by stones, and
that the site would be monitored by Finnish-operated radar
scanners.
|
| 385.25 | Survivorship had gender bias | TLE::SAVAGE | | Thu Feb 09 1995 11:52 | 30 |
| HELSINKI, Finland (AP) -- Men were more able to survive when
the Estonia ferry sank because they were stronger, investigators said
Monday.
Only 26 of 137 survivors were women.
``It was the survival of the fittest,'' said Kari Lehtola, a
Finnish member of the accident investigation committee.
The Estonia was sailing from Tallinn, Estonia, to the Swedish
capital, Stockholm, on Sept. 28, 1994, when its bow door was ripped
off in a storm. Water surged onto the car deck, and the ferry
turned on its side and sank in about 35 minutes.
Of the survivors, 101 were men aged 20 to 44 years. Rescuers
also found 94 bodies, mostly male, in the icy seas or on life rafts.
Lehtola said 765 people went down with the ship, including 422
women and 23 people under 18.
``Getting up from the lower decks was very difficult,'' he
said.``Passengers were faced with stairs that were upside down because
of the list. The only way of climbing them would have been to hang
monkey-like from the railings, which requires strength.''
Police believe 996 people were on the ferry. Earlier estimates
had put the figure at 1,049.
``I don't think we'll ever know for sure how many people were
on board,'' Lehtola said.
Of the 186-member crew, 43 survived, 31 of them men. Lehtola
denied the crew failed to help passengers.
``There doesn't seem to have been a very organized rescue
operation on board, but we have many reports of crew helping
passengers into life vests and rafts,'' he said.
Since October, the three-nation investigation team has
interviewed survivors and relatives of victims in Sweden, Estonia
and Finland. Its final report is expected in the fall.
|