The Nation - News from Sept. 6, 1989

The Navy’s long-awaited report into the battleship Iowa explosion that claimed 47 lives will point to the “probability” that human intervention may have touched off the explosion, but will not cite a specific reason for the blast, defense officials said. Top Navy officials plan to formally release their report Thursday. It culminates a more than four-month investigation into the April 19 tragedy, when powder exploded in the battleship’s No. 2 gun turret during open seas gunnery practice near Puerto Rico. Defense Department officials, speaking privately, say the report is not expected to pinpoint a singular cause of the blast.