A dive robot provided evidence that only a small part of the ramp is still attached to its hinge, while the ramp as a whole has, as noted, fallen fully open, for reasons still to be established.
The force that caused damage in the side of the hull, on the other hand, would have to be "enormous", Arikas said, adding that the exact extent of the damage is not known as it could also reach below the hull; the ferry's seventh and eighth decks (of 10) remained inaccessible, he said.
The dive robot also found significant volumes of debris inside the car deck, though it was not able to penetrate further inside, while some of the damage in the hull plating are on the opposite side from that which struck the seabed first, Arikas said.
Stern ramps remain closed
A deformation of 22 meters in length and four meters in height was registered in the middle part of the vessel on the starboard side.
The vessel's plating has outward deformations as well as in some inward ones, while a side fender has been forced inside the vessel. The deformations generally match the local geological profile.
As to the stern, its ramps had remained in a closed attitude.
The wreck rests on a slope with a gradient close to 30 meters. There is a protruding outcrop near the middle segment of the vessel, on which it rests on its starboard side – a fact already known in 1996 after the first investigation.
The soil around the wreck has collapsed on four occasions at different times.
The dive had seen interference which reduced sonar penetration from 150 meters, to 20 meters later on in the investigation.
Some objects lying close to the wreck also need to be identified, while a device left behind to measure sea current speeds will need to be retrieved in due course to extract data, Arikas said.
