29 years ago today the MS Estonia car ferry sank in the Baltic Sea while crossing from Tallinn to Stockholm leading to the deaths of 852 people.

Shortly after 01:00 on 28 September 1994 a loud bang was heard. There are claims that this could have been a NATO submarine colliding with the ferry or explosives going off. Last year it was revealed that the Swedish military used the ferry to transport weapons.

At the time of the sinking a large NATO Naval exercise called Cooperative Venture 94 was just starting in the Norwegian Sea. There were also reports that the Mayday signals from the Estonia were being jammed.

None of the NATO ships in the area responded to the distress calls or helped with the rescue efforts. As a result, a third of those who had initially escaped died of hypothermia, and fewer than half of those who managed to leave the ship were rescued.

According to journalist Sven Anér, nine Estonian crew who survived the disaster disappeared without a trace. According to Anér, they were flown to Arlanda Airport near Stockholm and then flown to the US on a private jet. Anér argues this was a convenient way to remove witnesses.

Following the sinking it was reported that one of the ferry’s captains Avo Piht had survived. However, German TV footage of him being interviewed in a hospital in Finland appears to have been confiscated by German intelligence. A Swedish pilot confirms that he rescued Piht.

Piht is deleted from a list of survivors and on October 7 Interpol issued a message looking for him but he appears to have vanished. Chief engineer Lembit Leiger and two twins Hannely & Hanka-Hannika Veide also disappeared.

In 1995 Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Denmark, and Russia signed a treaty declaring the site a grave and prohibiting further investigation. A 1997 investigation claimed that the disaster happened due to faulty bow door locks.

However, risking prosecution a Swedish documentary crew organized a dive to the ship. In their 2020 program, they revealed evidence that the ship had a 4-meter hole in the hull indicating it had been involved in a collision.

Along with carrying military weapons, there are also claims that the ship was used for counter-terrorism exercises including one the day before the disaster. Although Swedish authorities have claimed that there were no weapons aboard when the ship sank.

Source: @redstreamnet YouTube channel