Скандал на «Scandinavian Star»: пожар, саботаж и расследование

Car and passenger ferry

MS Scandinavian Star, originally named MS Massalia, was a car and passenger ferry built in France in 1971. The ship was set on fire on 7 April 1990, killing 159 people. The official investigation determined the fire had been caused by a convicted arsonist who died in the blaze. This finding has since been disputed. On 15 March 1988, just a few days after the first fire, Scandinavian Star was about northeast of Cancún when a second fire started in the engine room. The ship, which was then carrying 439 passengers and 268 crew members, lost its power supply and emergency oxygen system, hampering the fire crew's efforts. The inability of the crewmembers to communicate effectively with each other and with passengers was a serious concern and created confusion during the firefighting and evacuation procedures.

The captain of the vessel said that the ferry was carrying 395 passengers and 97 crew on the day of the fire. It was later determined that 158 people, or approximately one third of all passengers on board, died on the ship. Another victim died two weeks later from his injuries. 136 of those killed were Norwegian. As many of the victims' remains were damaged by the fire, more than 100 specialists, including police technicians, forensic pathologists, and forensic dentists, worked to identify all the recovered remains. It was initially reported that many of the bodies found were children, but Swedish Police were quoted as stating that children under the age of 7 were not included on passenger lists, causing confusion on actual counts. A 2013 report prepared by a self appointed Norwegian group called "Stiftelsen Etterforskning Av Mordbrannen Scandinavian Star" ("Foundation for Arson Investigation Scandinavian Star") denied that Andersen was responsible, claiming instead that multiple fires were deliberately set and the truck driver was killed by one of the first two fires (up to nine hours prior to the last fire being started). The same 2013 report claimed that as many as nine experienced members of the crew, having joined the ship earlier in Tampa, were likely to be responsible for six separate fires on the Scandinavian Star as well as multiple acts of sabotage to both the ship and the fire crew's efforts to put out the fire. The report proposed the motive for the crime was insurance fraud, as the ship was insured for twice its value shortly before the fire broke out. The report claims that multiple people with insider knowledge of the ship were required for events to unfold as they did. This controversial and unproven report led to renewed police interest, and in 2014 the investigation was officially reopened and charges dropped against the deceased suspect Andersen. In February 2016, the retired Danish investigator Flemming Thue Jensen, who had led the post fire investigation in 1990, claimed that the fire was sabotage and was set by members of the ship's crew; that fire doors had been propped open to allow the fire to spread; and that a third flare up that occurred after the ship had been evacuated of passengers was caused by crew members soaking mattresses with diesel fuel.

The incident raised a number of issues relating to fire protection and evacuation on passenger ships. The International Code for Fire Safety Systems of the International Maritime Organization's International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea was comprehensively amended after the disaster, in 1992.

The burnt ship was towed to Copenhagen, Denmark on 18 April 1990, arriving two days later and remaining there for several months. On 11 August 1990, she was towed to the United Kingdom, first arriving at Hull before moving on to Southampton on 10 September, where the vessel was renamed Candi by simply painting over part of the original name. In February 1994, she was sold at auction to International Shipping Partners. She was renamed Regal Voyager and sent to Italy for rebuilding, then later chartered to Comarit Ferries and put on the route between Tangier, Morocco and Port Vendres, France. In 1997, she was registered to St. Thomas Cruises and put on a route between Port Isabel, Texas and Puerto Cortés, Honduras, for Isabel Cortes Ferry Service. Chartered to Ferries del Caribe in 1999, she was put on the route Santo Domingo – San Juan, Puerto Rico. The ship was laid up in Charleston, South Carolina in 2003, then sold to Indian shipbreakers in 2004 and renamed as Regal V. She arrived at Alang, Gujarat, India, on 14 May 2004, and the work to get her broken up started five days later.

A few months after the fire, a two day memorial voyage was arranged by a survivors' support group, clergymen and psychologists in order to remember the victims and help survivors and family members heal. The voyage was taken by about 300 people, who dropped flowers into the North Sea during a sunset memorial service. On 7 April 2006, a memorial was inaugurated in Oslo, near the Akershus Fortress. It features a mother carrying her baby and leading another child, a small boy who reaches back for his dropped teddy bear; also a large commemorative plaque with the names of all the victims of the fire. In 2015 on the 25th anniversary of the fire, Queen Sonja of Norway, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Oslo Mayor Fabian Stang, and Denmark's Ambassador to Norway Torben Brylle, paid tribute to the victims and survivors in a waterfront ceremony. A permanent memorial of the Scandinavian Star fire was unveiled in Lysekil on 13 May 2021.