More than six years have elapsed since the publication of the Report of this Group of Experts into the foundering of MV ESTONIA and it seems appropriate to sum up the developments in the meantime in this Update and to draw final conclusions.
As will be shown later the basic conclusions of our Report need not be altered. The ESTONIA was unseaworthy when she left Tallinn on the evening of the 27.9.1994 and that fact was known – amongst others - to her captains and chief engineer, the Swedish Sjöfartsverket and the Estonian National Maritime Board, all of whom failed to take the action necessary to prevent the vessel from sailing.

There is furthermore no reasonable doubt left, that explosions occurred at the forward part of the vessel and elsewhere during the voyage to Stockholm, which caused extensive damage. This necessitated a slight alteration of our scenario. Whether the damage caused by the explosions was a contributing cause for the sinking of the vessel or not can, however, at the time not be established with certainty. The actual circumstances of the sinking of the vessel do raise doubts as to the integrity of her underwater sections. There is sufficient reason to assume that the underwater shell of the vessel was open to the sea when the sequence-of-events leading to the sinking of the ferry commenced. This, however, will certainly be established by the Sinkingstudy presently in progress.

Our investigation since May 2000 has revealed, further facts which shed a very peculiar light on the Swedish and other Governments with regard to their attitude towards  the foundering of  MV ESTONIA. After thorough research conducted in the files of the Swedish government it has now transpired, that the acting Swedish Prime Minister at the time of the accident, Mr. Carl Bildt, without knowing any of the relevant facts or having any own expertise - and against the better knowledge of his military Navyadvisor, Commander Emil Svensson, already on the afternoon of the 28.09.1994 – the day of the sinking - together with the Prime Ministers of Estonia and Finland - pretended to know the cause of the accident and made it public: The design mistake of the visor locks.

The legend thus created by him thereafter dominated the investigation of the JAIC to the extent, that the true facts were severely manipulated by the members of the JAIC as will be demonstrated further hereinafter. In the last chapters of the main body of our Report, we have additionally accused the JAIC of sloppy work. This Update fully confirms our two conclusions. Having read it, the reader will most likely share our conclusions now: The members of the JAIC have indeed performed their investigation not with the aim to find the true causes for the casualty, but were apparently influenced to create a scenario from which the public should draw the conclusion, that the accident was caused by a design mistake. They complied – albeit sloppily - and that - in legal terms – leaves only one conclusion: The members of the JAIC have committed slander when they – against their better knowledge – stated and maintained that the accident was caused by a design mistake by the builders of the vessel, Messrs. Jos. L. Meyer GmbH, in Papenburg.

That unfortunately is not the only sordid conclusion the reader will have to draw: If he is a citizen of the Kingdom of Sweden, he will up to now most likely have trusted his government in their intention to abide by their own laws and refrain from misleading its citizens.

As will be shown below, the Swedish government, however, in the case of MV ESTONIA did not justify this trust.  The wreck of MV ESTONIA has in the meantime been literally plundered - under the supervision and control of the government of the Kingdom of Sweden. The peace of the grave has thereby repeatedly and intentionally been disturbed in the gravest possible manner. Unfortunately it must be concluded that the actual reason for the attempt of the Swedish government to exclude third persons from any access to the site of the wreck was to prevent detection of the above and other secrets of the wreck.
Only during the last months, the Governments of Sweden and Estonia seem to have been grasped by the wind of change towards an increase of democratic openness and transparency.  The question, however, is whether the Armed Forces and Intelligence Services will follow.  Finland maintains its stance.