WIDOWER IN £40,000 DIVE TO FIND BODY
Express and Star, 26 July 1995 

A desperate husband whose wife died in the Estonia ferry disaster spent more than £40,000 on a clandestine diving operation in a bid to find her body.

Peter Barasinski decided he had to find his 28-year old wife Carita's body after spending two years putting flowers on her empty grave in Uppsala, Sweden.

            

He said: "The government was doing nothing about recovering the bodies 240ft down there on the sea-bed. I just could not mourn by an empty grave forever - by hook or by crook I had to give Carita a decent burial."

Mr Barasinski, aged 39, blew most of his £55,000 death payout on chartering a tug and hiring a remote controlled sub, with a camera and a mechanical arm.

A diving expert worked all night to get the sub into position, while a Swedish naval patrol boat, guarding the wreck, tried to force them away.

But the sub was unable to get to the spot where ferry hostess Carita's body was last seen.

Mr Barasinski cast a wreath of red roses into the water as the tug headed back to port and said: "Out at sea I feel closer to Carita than at any time since the disaster. I feel at peace with myself."

                

                                   Peter at Carita's grave