Again, the sinking has been recreated using both physical models and computer models. The science is solid. The bow visor was knocked off, and it yanked open the car ramp allowing sea water to flood the car deck, and lower decks. The fact that Estonia continued to sail at top speed aided in the intake of water. Broken windows due to the increasing list are a secondary factor in the sinking. No less important, but not the driving element. Getting caught up in minutia is a conspiracy theorist game I used to play when I bought into that line of thinking.
We just had a UPS MD-11 crash in Kentucky. There is poor quality video of the whole thing. One of the engines is still on the runway. When Jay Utah says, "Stay in your lane", he means you have to defer to the experts on the investigation who work with the evidence. In the case of the crash, as layman I point out that the engine falling off is bad, but the coming investigation will lay out the sequence of events leading to the engine falling off, and what else was happening with the plane before it hit the ground. Therefore I have no qualified standing to discuss the particulars of this crash, and I need to limit my comments to reflecting on how awful this is for the families, and people on the ground, and UPS as we head into the Holiday Season. If I start running my mouth about what potential cargo was on the plane that some shadowy organization needed to be stopped that would make me an a**hole. I know the basics of flight, but I'm not a pilot. I build airplane models, but I'm in no way an aeronautical engineer.
With the MS Estonia, I'm not a sailor, I'm not an engineer. I've lived near the Pacific Ocean all my life. I have friends who own commercial salmon boat in Alaska, and I took a college class on maritime procedures for fun. My college education included oceanography and marine biology along with my geology classes. I'm in no position to question the JAIC even if I wanted to.
I have seen the ocean destroy things; roads, wharfs, large boats, and granite landscapes. Decades ago I had a friend killed on a sunny day by a rogue wave that came from nowhere, and raced 100 yards up the beach to drag her out to sea. There was no warning. The captain of the Estonia made a conscious choice to sail at an unsafe speed in weather where the captains of other vessels chose to take it slow. The Estonia was not designed for open ocean transit on a sunny day, and had only sailed in rough seas one other time. The captain should have known better, the shipping company should have known better.
All the splitting of hairs will not change the basic facts.