Wreckage of Kaleva plane not found in search off Estonian coast

US Navy vessel concludes search

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The Pathfinder research vessel of the United States Navy concluded its search for the wreckage of a Finnish passenger plane near the Estonian island of Keri in the Gulf of Finland on Wednesday. The plane, the Kaleva, was shot down by Soviet fighter-bombers in June 1940 as it was en route from Tallinn to Helsinki.
      The search, which had continued day and night from Friday evening through Wednesday morning, involved three different remote-controlled underwater robots, equipped with sonar and video cameras.
      “There are no signs of large man-made objects there. I am quite convinced that the plane is not there”, said Martin Ammond, head of the team of investigators.
     
The area searched by the US ship is located 16 nautical miles northwest of the island of Keri. The area was chosen on the basis of previous investigations by Finland and Estonia.
      The sea bottom in the area is very rocky, with plenty of ridges. The depth of the sea varied between 32 and 118 metres. Some of the rocks were five metres high and 20 metres long.
      “We are nevertheless certain that the Kaleva will be found one day. Now that these coordinates have been ruled out, we hope that other ships will continue the search for new locations this summer”, said Eric Johnson, information officer for the US Embassy in Tallinn.
     
According to Finnish expert Irmeli Wallin, who took part in the study, the area that was investigated covered 16 square miles. Wallin says that the members of the crew did their jobs the best that they could, and that pictures of the sea bottom were of high quality. Wallin feels that the study was successful, even though no plane was found.
      “The nature of the data that was collected rules out the possibility that [the plane] might be in the area. There were results, but the wreckage of the Kaleva is not in the area that we looked; it is somewhere else”, Wallin said.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  High-tech search begins for wreckage of Finnish plane shot down over Gulf of Finland in 1940 (2.6.2008)
  Americans launch search for Finnish passenger airplane Kaleva shot down in 1940 (27.5.2008)

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