"There is no way that waves of 4 meters could have knocked off Estonia’s visor in September 1994! This is the central lie of the whole cover-up!" - Anders Björkman, M.Sc.
10 Years After
In order to assist the survivors and relatives of the Estonia catastrophe, who 10 years after the sinking of the ferry are still pursuing the truth through litigation in Paris, the Heiwa Company has compiled a critical analysis. http://heiwaco.tripod.com/findings.htm The Heiwa Co. critique of the findings of the official investigation should suffice to convince any court that the "official" findings regarding the sinking are false.
10 Years After the Sinking of Estonia
10 years after the sinking of Estonia the cause of the disaster remains a mystery. Many people believe that the sinking of the Baltic ferry was an accident caused by defective visor locks, as the Joint Accident Investigation Commission (JAIC) concluded in its final report in December 1997. However, the essential findings presented in the JAIC final report are all false. How JAIC manipulated the facts is explained in an analysis done by the Heiwa Co. http://heiwaco.tripod.com
In the aftermath of the sinking there was a great deal of confusion in the media about the causes of the catastrophe. The Swedish authorities, however, provided only one explanation for the catastrophe: The ship's bow visor had broken off due to the force of the waves and torn open the car ramp. This led to seawater flooding the car deck, which in turn caused the ship to capsize and sink.
A week after the sinking, JAIC http://heiwaco.tripod.com/epunkt15.htm which was not yet formally constituted, came out in support of the "official" scenario of the sinking in its First Interim Report, adding that the visor had been lost underway before the ship capsized.
Since then no other possibilities of the sinking have been investigated. The public has been told that films from the wreck confirm that the visor is missing … and must have been lost before the capsizing ... and that this is what caused Estonia to sink.
There is, however, no evidence that this is true. The vessel never capsized - it sank without capsizing!
Three weeks after the accident (18 October 1994) the visor was "officially" found - a mile west of the wreck. There is no evidence that this claim is true either.
It is very likely that the whole investigation was based on three initial lies, because in all probability the visor was still attached, when the wreck was filmed on September 30, 1994. The missing visor theory was planted in the media while the public was still in a state of shock over the 852 victims, and before critical voices about the causes of the sinking could be heard.
Three years of secret "investigations" followed. The public was denied access to JAIC meetings and all essential evidence was kept secret. This is illegal. JAIC met more than 20 times before releasing their final report in December 1997. During this time JAIC continued to repeat the official line: "The visor fell off and caused the disaster."
This official theory was later refined to say that due to defective visor locks and enormous waves, the visor was lost and seawater had entered the car deck causing the ship to capsize at 01.15 hrs, and to sink at about 01.50 hrs. All relevant findings from examinations of the wreck were manipulated to support this theory.
Public discussion of the causation of the sinking was considered to be "meaningless" http://heiwaco.tripod.com/epunkt111.htm
A self-appointed Group of German Experts conducted its own investigation in 1995-1998. It failed completely. It never understood that the vessel neither capsized nor lost its visor as alleged by JAIC. It never managed to conclude that the alleged causes could not have contributed to the alleged events. Later it published a strange report - a mirror picture of the JAIC report - only pointing out errors in the latter, but never suggesting that all essential information was falsified! The Germans used the same stability experts as JAIC and the ship owner to cover up the Truth. The Germans ignored all information provided by Heiwa Co. at meetings both in Hamburg and Beausoleil. It seems that the Germans were manipulated by JAIC.
When the final report was released many professionals were critical. JAIC, however, did not respond to any criticism. In October 2000 the Swedish government requested a review of the criticism raised in Anders Björkman’s book Disaster Investigation. http://heiwaco.tripod.com/disasterinvestigation.htm
Ann Louise Eksborg http://heiwaco.tripod.com/estoniakrisen.htm, director of the Swedish Accident Investigation Board (SHK) wrote October 16, 2000:
"In conclusion you can say that the main traits in the sequence of events and in the connexion of causes of the JAIC Final report are based on several secured and proven relations and facts, where it is practically impossible to see that a new independent investigation shall be able to conclude an essentially different result."
No further official investigations were ordered. Instead of a new investigation the Swedish Board of Psychological Defense (SPF) assembled a 'Memory Bank' to explain the sinking of Estonia and conducted a study on how Estonia had filled with water and sunk, something JAIC had failed to do in its three-year "investigation."
How water in the Estonia’s superstructure, i.e. the car deck, could cause the vessel to sink was never explained by JAIC, and is still, 10 years after the accident, not explained. There is no evidence that water on the car deck caused the sinking.
Legal proceedings to find the real cause and the responsible parties of the sinking had started early, but were delayed or postponed for various reasons during every phase of the developments.
And this is the situation today of the most shocking and tragic marine accident in Europe after the Second World War - no explanation what happened has been given except a false Final report, 10 years of denials of any wrong doings by several governments, authorities and legal courts and continued cover-ups of any attempts to clarify matters, e.g. the water filling study of admiral Rosenius. Safety at sea is sadly a bad joke in Sweden, Finland and Estonia.
The only forum where the sinking of Estonia is still open for discussion is in the court in Paris. To assist in this critical litigation process, certain observations and facts should prove to any court that the JAIC report is fundamentally flawed and, therefore, can not be used to explain the sinking of Estonia.
The JAIC report contains 61 official findings: its conclusions and recommendations are based on those findings. If the findings are shown to be false, the conclusions and recommendations cannot be true.
For the list of arguments that prove that the JAIC findings are false, click here: http://heiwaco.tripod.com/findings.htm
The JAIC findings indicate that the commission made a big issue out of wave impact loads on Estonia’s bow visor, which was attached to the superstructure. The JAIC report says that the rough seas with 4 meter waves (less than a storm) greatly exceeded what could have been expected and that the visor’s attachments failed under the resultant wave force.
Falsified Model Tests
However, it is easily proved that the alleged wave impact loads on the visor, from JAIC’s Swedish and Finnish simulations have been falsified and increased by a factor of at least five.
The model tests http://heiwaco.tripod.com/eapp2.htm ordered by the JAIC and carried out by Messrs. SSPA Marin AB model test basin, Gothenburg, Sweden, are falsified and cannot be re-done by any other model test basin!
JAIC’s simulations cannot be repeated by any scientist! A simple visual observation of a similar ship in the same sea state confirms that the whole visor is rarely submerged when pitching into the waves and that waves impacting on the visor high above the waterline are very rare and of small magnitude. These could not even lift the visor from its attachments!
There is no way that waves of 4 m significant height could have knocked off Estonia’s visor in September 1994! This is the central lie of the whole cover-up!
10 years of "patriotic" Lies
But how could JAIC get away with a report based on lies? It is actually very easy.
The Swedish government appointed three investigators who were told to blame the accident on the visor in a secret and illegal investigation – and ignore the real cause: a hole in the hull.
It was easy to put pressure on the Swedish investigators. Sweden has an affirmative patriotic culture adapted to the political power. The Swedish investigators lied for "patriotic" reasons to protect what they believed were Swedish interests. Indeed, they were "patriotic liars" and it was their sense of patriotism that kept them silent (and killed one of them) when faced with their lies.
After the JAIC report was published, not one investigator would explain or support even one of the essential findings in the final report. Other "patriotic" liars, however, were prepared to stand up and support the lying investigators.
Consensus is part of the Swedish mindset because Sweden is a small country with few alternatives. Either you support the outrageous lies of the leaders – or you are destroyed, unless you leave the country and defend the truth elsewhere.
The Board of Psychological Defense has assisted in covering up the official lies of Sweden. Finland and Estonia have been forced to play along. The manipulation of the Estonia catastrophe was carried out by a few dedicated people.
As basic ship stability calculations confirm, the entire "official" sequence of events is false. All of the stability calculations http://heiwaco.tripod.com/epunkt217.htm for the JAIC report had to be falsified. When that failed, Admiral Rosenius stepped in and produced a falsified water filling study in 2003.
Pictures of Damage Caused by Explosives
In order to support the lost visor theory the Swedish Navy removed Estonia’s visor with explosives from the wreck after the accident. The damage http://heiwaco.tripod.com/epunkt310.htm caused by explosives can be seen in the films of the wreck, for example the big hole http://heiwaco.tripod.com/swimmingpool3.htm in the starboard side of the superstructure bow ramp frame (officially undamaged according to JAIC). This damage was caused by actions done to the wreck after the vessel had sunk.
The details of this history will probably be revealed one day. But first the "patriotic" liars of Sweden, Finland, and Estonia and the JAIC final report must be torn to shreds by the court in Paris.
Anders Björkman, M.Sc.
Heiwa Co., European Agency for Safety at Sea
Beausoleil, France | 
10. juli 2004 - på engelska
