LONDON () -- The ferry Estonia sank in the Baltic in September killing more than 900 people because of a fundamental design flaw, a British television program said Thursday.


When the ferry was built in the late 1970s, designers were unaware of the pressures that heavy seas could exert on the bows of ever bigger ships, the BBC's Newsnight program said.


"The authorities investigating the sinking of the Estonia have told Newsnight it sank because of a fundamental flaw in the design of the ship," it said.


"The ferry's inner watertight bow doors w0ere positioned in such a way that, when the outer bow doors were ripped off by heavy seas, they opened the inner doors and sank the ship."