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November 25th, 2020 
Awake Goy 
Swedish prosecutors have received a request to reopen an investigation into the 1994 MS Estonia ferry disaster.
The latest probe comes after new information about the sinking was released in a Discovery Network documentary in September.
852 people were killed when the MS Estonia sank in stormy weather on September 28, 1994, in the Baltic Sea in the deadliest peacetime shipwreck in European waters.
Passengers from 17 countries drowned in the disaster, while only 137 passengers and crew survived.
An official investigation in 1997 concluded that the locking system of the ship’s retractable ramp was defective, flooding the car deck and causing the vessel to roll over and sink.
But new documentary footage from the wreck site revealed previously undisclosed damage to the starboard side of the ferry’s hull.
The images prompted some survivors and relatives of victims to demand a new thorough investigation.
However, a preliminary report published on the Estonian government website last month concluded that the newly-discovered damage was too small to have sunk the ship as quickly as it did.
“The findings cannot change the conclusions presented in the final report … thus, further investigation for the reason for the sinking of MS Estonia does not seem reasonable.”
A spokesperson for the Estonian government confirmed to Euronews that the draft report had no official status.
“A request has been received by the Public Prosecutor’s Office that the preliminary investigation from the 1990s on the sinking of MS Estonia be resumed due to new circumstances emerging,” the Swedish Prosecution Authority said in a statement on Tuesday.
“The request received refers to information in the recently shown television documentary,” it added.
Chamber prosecutor Karolina Wieslander will now familiarise herself with the case but provided no further information.
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