And they're all present and accounted for in table 7.8 of the final report.
Could he have rescued other people at other times? Or are you saying he only made one trip during the entire rescue effort?
No deletion to explain. They're all there on table 7.8. We have 137 named survivors, and 137 survivors listed on the table, which indicates 9 people brought to Huddinge, one of whom died. Which names are you claiming were deleted, and when?
The interview footage fades to a black screen with captions, and then cuts back to the interview just before the question, so we don't know the context at this point. They could have been talking for an hour and changed topics in the interval, for all you now. How do we know he wasn't talking about the total number rescued by all the ships (which the report gives as 34)?
Again, note the cut in the interview footage. You don't have context to know what he's referring to. I suspect most likely he's talking at this point about the total number the ships rescued, and not just the Mariella.
I can't find Table 7.8, which you quote. However, the JAIC states the following about Helicopter Y64, of which Svensson was the commander.
Y 64 took off from Berga at 0445 hrs, picked up a physician and a nurse from Huddinge Hospital and arrived at the scene of the accident at 0552 hrs.
The crew noticed that many rafts were searched more than once because there were no markings showing that a raft already had been examined. Therefore the crew proposed by radio that the rescue men should cut up the canopies of searched rafts.
Y 64 began to rescue three people, one in a raft, one lying in the water tied to the raft and one lifeless entangled in the raft's sea anchor. The helicopter winched down its rescue man to the person in the water. Although the winch wire failed, the rescue man managed to raise him. The next to be lifted up was the man in the raft. He was not wearing a lifejacket. He fell into the water just before gaining the helicopter. The rescue man jumped after him and succeeded in grasping him. The winch now failed totally and another helicopter, Y 74, was called upon to rescue them. However, before Y 74 arrived, the person died.
Y 64 brought the survivor to Utö. The medical personnel on board were left to assist the Finnish nursing staff. As requested by the staff, Y 64 transported 20 survivors from Utö to Turku University Central Hospital. After this Y 64 got permission from the OSC to return to Berga to repair the broken winch, and landed there at 1530 hrs.
JAIC Report 7.5.5
So Svensson
vis-à-vis Helicopter Y64, from the above, rescued just
one person. And received a medal for it.
Let's turn the to historian's friend: the earliest newspaper reports:
Kenneth - one of the many Heros of the Night
… Kenneth Svensson 27 years old. One of the many heroes in connection with the ferry disaster. Kenneth Svensson ... is a rescue man. ... Kenneth Svensson, who was first on site of the rescue men, was lowered under dramatic conditions down to the persons in danger. ... The first rescue attempt failed and he was hauled up again to the helicopter. ... people called for help ... -After only just half a minute I made a new attempt and it went better.
-On a capsized raft sat three frozen and apathic men.
Kenneth Svensson could hardly fit the rescue harness around them. ... Eight humans Kenneth Svensson managed to pick up from the sea.Then he almost drowned himself.
When the last rescued person was going to be lifted, the rescue line got stuck in a rail and the rescue man Kenneth got hanging below the helicopter and he was close to being smashed against the underside of the helicopter in the strong wind. The helicopter crew understood the situation and quickly cut the wire to Kenneth Svensson. With a big splash he fell back into the water and hurt his face and one side of the body. Meanwhile his own helicopter was forced to return to Huddinge hospital with the injured persons and he must be rescued by another helicopter.
From that helicopter Olle Moberg, also 27 years old, was lowered. He managed to secure a new wire around the hero Kenneth Svensson, who was close to lose his own life in the battle to rescue survivors from the Estonia.
...
(Aftonbladet Wednesday 28 September 1994 ; by Sven-Anders Eriksson)
So at a stroke, nine persons deleted with no explanation in the JAIC Report. If these people were listed in error, how did the pilot also manage to report he flew nine people to Huddinge - one dead - and at three in the morning, not five as stated in the JAIC report?
The original survivors lists showed 146 survivors . Anér, a respected Swedish journalist and author of '
May Day' claims he himself saw 15 original lists of survivors - including pilot logbooks - and all eleven Estonian crew members who 'disappeared' were listed therein.
Anér claims that Chief Aviation Administrator of Sweden, Jan Lindqvist, gave him the receipts for the cargo planes to Amsterdam with 9 unregistered passengers and a second plane to Maine, USA, with five. The transits were both invoiced to the US Embassy in Stockhom.
He believes these passengers were the missing crew.
