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SSPA Model Tests 3 April 2008 - Media invited At the tests the model with 14 knots speed full scale - 2.2 knots model scale - and bow seas shall lose the visor that pulls open the ramp in the superstructure. The tests go 6,3 times faster than in full scale reality. Water shall then during 19 seconds (two minutes fullscale) and with about 16 pitchings with the bow opening under water be loaded on the car deck in the superstructure and heel the model to starboard. The angle of heel after 19 seconds will likely exceed 40°, when the deck house on deck 4+ comes under water according previous model tests, when the deck house was full of foam. See also Heiwa Co:s calculations of inflow through open ramp done 2000. The deck house will now be flooded through damaged windows in the side and the angle of heel will increase! After 19 seconds and reduced speed (heel is >40°) it is planned that the modell shall turn port against the waves and turn 180 degrees during another 19 seconds - the engines will stop - and capsize with the hull upside down. It is now, three, four minutes full scale after the initial heeling that evacuation takes place - how it is possible with heel >40°?! The engine crew and the passengers on deck 1 would never have time to escape with such fast developments of heel. "It is not decided whether the watertight doors in the hull below the car deck shall be open or closed during the tests", according Björn Allenström, one of the responsible scientists. However, it does not matter, if the doors are open or closed. The buoyancy - the air inside the hull - is the same and the longitudinal centre of buoyancy does not change. The model will only float upside down a little higher than in full scale! "When Estonia was flooded with water, the air in the hull was compressed. As we cannot recreate the same high water pressure in the model, we must release air from the model under controlled conditions; if not the model has too much buoyancy", according Claes Källström, chief or research at SSPA (source Ny Teknik, 2008-03-19) Källström probably thinks that air trapped inside the capsized hull is compressed, when the position of buoyancy is upside down and when water has stopped flooding the hull! How much air that must be released is simple to calculate, so that the model floats a little lower like in full scale after capsize. But after this adjustment, you cannot release more air! The model must evidently float after capsize and drift to the position of the wreck! Estonia sank after about 50 minutes. The model will on the contrary not sink after eight minutes according Heiwa Co:s calculations. The modell will never sink! Compressed air inside the hull can never escape after a fast capsize. Heiwa Co looks forward the SSPA model tests 3 April 2008. They will confirm that the Estonia did not sink due to water loaded on the car deck! (Published 2008-03-21) Read also the German report about the same matter below. Further down on this page you find many other facts that SSPA ignores in its scientific analysis of the Estonia incdent.
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