Published 16 July 2021 at 20.49
Domestic. When the sonar investigation of Estonia's wreck was to begin on Tuesday, the expedition was suddenly attacked by a disturbance operation carried out by an unknown actor who was below the water surface. Investigators had to give up for the day and return home. This is confirmed by TT's photographer Stefan Jerrevång, who was on board when the incident occurred, for Fria Tider.
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This week, Swedish and Estonian authorities examined Estonia's wrecks with sonar, sonar and robot camera.
Although Sweden wanted to content itself with examining the wreck with sonar and wait until the year 2022 to take camera pictures, Estonia also dived down with an underwater camera on Wednesday, and then discovered that the bow ramp had been completely detached from the ship sometime after journalist Henrik Evertsson filmed the ramp in intact condition in the autumn of 2019.
The day before Estonia sent down its robot camera, problems arose when Swedish and Estonian authorities were to investigate Estonia with sonar. Suddenly, the instruments were knocked out by jamming equipment, writes TT in an article on Friday, which was published after the incident was noticed on Estonian radio.
Photographer Stefan Jerrevång, who on TT's behalf was on the expedition's Estonian ship Eva when the disturbance occurred, confirms that the investigators on board agreed that it was a disturbance that came from an external actor operating below sea level.
< p> – There was a disturbance from an external source below the surface. It was agreed on board after excluding other sources of interference by shutting down various own systems. Then, of course, there were various speculations, but that there was a disturbance from an external party, there was no doubt about that, says Jerrevång.
According to Stefan Jerrevång, the disturbance occurred when the expedition used a sweep zone investigation on Tuesday. He says that the image on the computer screens was suddenly replaced by various waves of disturbance and that the expedition had to be interrupted for the day and the incoming ships return to port.
TT thus found out about this on Tuesday but published the news only on Friday. Why?
– I have no direct answer to that, but I can imagine that they wanted to check the information, but that is not something I should answer.
The next day, Estonia sent out the ship VLT-089 which was equipped with a wired robotic camera, a so-called ROV, which can not be disturbed unless you cut the cable between the camera and the survey vessel.
Such a clipping occurred when journalist Jutta Rabe and the American adventurer Gregg Bemis dived near Estonia with a robotic camera in 2000, which made the results of that expedition more difficult and worse. On Wednesday, however, Estonia came down with a camera and then managed to photograph the detached boarding ramp.
It is not known who unloaded the ramp and who tried to disrupt the investigation, but Fria Tider wrote earlier this week that the opening of the ramp means that any damage to car tires can no longer be automatically linked to the Swedish Armed Forces. However, this was previously the case because the authority alone took care of the surveillance of the wreck from the time of the accident on 28 September 1994 to 2 October the same year, when the railings from the inside of the closed ramp got stuck on video images from the seabed outside the wreck.
Jonas Bäckstrand, Chairman of the Inquiry and Deputy Director General, confirms to TT that the expedition was disturbed by an “unknown” actor, but does not want to say whether it was a disturbance from a submarine. He also has no theories about which actor may have carried out the disturbance.
Judging by the tone in the Estonian media, however, the suspicions are directed at Sweden and a Swedish submarine. In the Baltic country, even the largest media now openly suggest that the media on the other side of the Baltic Sea are darkening and toning down the sensational information about Estonia.
“Unlike in Estonia, Swedish reporting is still very toned down. Small news releases has appeared in all major newspapers, but the fact that the book ramp has been opened has not received much attention “, states the leading daily newspaper Eesti Päevaleht.
The newspaper also reproduces in detail how TT has worked in a telegram that Aftonbladet published in unchanged condition on 14 July:
“Even a tabloid like Aftonbladet, which should be more sensational than the conservative newspapers, reports on the Estonia investigation with great restraint. The headline states that Estonia is on a rockier bottom than previously thought, and this information is also included in the preamble. As for the bow ramp, you have to go to the end of the article, where it says that 'The bow ramp is slanted but basically completely down, from having been open 60 centimeters in surveys done by Jutta Rabe and JAIC.' “, States Eesti Päevaleht .
Today, the Estonian news site Delfi publishes a follow-up article in which it appears that no surface water vessel has visited Estonia since Evertsson and his team filmed the ramp in open condition. This is stated by the Finnish authorities, who claim to have kept the water surface around Estonia under constant surveillance ever since.
Former Estonian public prosecutor and former Estonian state investigator Margus Kurm is of the opinion that a Swedish submarine probably caused the accident, and now points to the risk that someone, implicitly Sweden, may have taken off the ramp underwater.
In short, for 25 years the ramp has been closed on the ship. It's hard to believe that, just before the underwater & shy; investigations are to begin, it suddenly and without help falls off, says Kurm to Postimees.
The Swedish submarine HMS Blekinge, which is the only one that can release and take in attack divers with larger equipment without being visible at the surface, as far as Fria Tider experiences has been launched by FMV but has not yet been delivered to the Armed Forces. During a call to Karlskronavarvet late on Friday afternoon, no one was on site who could give any information about where the submarine was staying. During the evening, Fria Tider requested the information from Saab's press center via e-mail, but the request had not yet resulted in a response at the time of publication of this article.