Human Error Ruled Out in Ferry Disaster After Bow Door Is Checked

The crew wasn’t to blame for the Estonia ferry disaster, but metal fatigue or poor design might have been, investigators said Monday.

“We can forget the theory of human error,” said Tuomo Karppinen, a Finnish member of the commission that is investigating the disaster. “The crew had not left the bow door open.”

More than 900 people died when water flooded the Estonian ferry’s deck after the 56-ton door was torn off during a storm. Investigators had been unsure whether the door came off because it wasn’t shut properly or because there had been a technical malfunction or design flaw.

Metal fatigue has not been ruled out, Karppinen said.

Salvagers raised the door from the Baltic seabed Friday, hoping for definitive evidence of why the ship sank Sept. 28 while traveling from Tallinn, Estonia, to Stockholm. Of the 1,049 people on board, only 136 survived.

“It’s very clear now that all the hydraulic locks on the door were closed at the time of the accident,” Karppinen said. “The locks were broken, with some of the pins still left in the hinges.”