USS Iowa: New Study -- Accident, Not Sabotage, May Have Caused Blast That Killed 47 Sailors

WASHINGTON - Sen. Howard Metzenbaum, D-Ohio, said today it was possible ``heads will roll'' in the Navy in light of a new congressional study that says an accident, not sabotage, may have caused the blast that last year killed 47 sailors aboard the battleship Iowa.

Congressional investigators told the Senate Armed Services Committee today that their report found the April 19, 1989, explosion could have resulted from gunpowder bags in the ship's guns being rammed at ``higher than normal speeds.''

Last fall, the Navy said the fireball aboard the Iowa ``most probably'' was an intentional act by crew member Clayton Hartwig of Cleveland, who died in the explosion. It said Hartwig appeared to be a loner who staged the blast because he was upset over the breakup of a friendship with another sailor, Kendall

Truitt. The new report, by the General Accounting Office, was released a day after the Navy announced it is reopening its investigation. The Navy also said it was halting the firing of 16-inch guns aboard its four battleships after an ``unexplained ignition'' of gunpowder bags during testing.

Hartwig's father, Earl Hartwig, a Navy gunner's mate in World War II, said of the GAO report: ``This is what we've been saying all along. My son is not guilty. The Navy was barking up the wrong tree.''

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn, D-Ga., said the testimony ``cast grave doubts on the Navy's findings'' that foreign

material had been found in the gun barrel.

Metzenbaum said of last year's Navy investigation: ``I think some of those who headed up the investigation ought to be called on the carpet. I think it is possible some heads will roll.''

The Navy accused Hartwig of placing ``some type of detonation device'' between gunpowder bags as he supervised the loading of one of the Iowa's guns.

Today's GAO report said there was no conclusive evidence that elements from an explosive device were found in the gun barrel, said Rep. Mary Rose Oakar, D-Ohio, who represents the district where Hartwig's family lives.

The ignition of the gunpowder bags came during follow-up testing that the Navy has been doing as new theories were brought forward, the Navy said.

After a four-month examination of the Iowa explosion - and about 20,000 technical tests of gunpowder blasts - the Navy contended in September that it had found no technical reason for the explosion.

The Navy admitted it only had circumstantial evidence because all witnesses died in the fire.

Pentagon sources, who requested anonymity, said the Navy was informed several weeks ago about results of tests conducted for GAO by the Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, N.M., which indicated the fatal explosion could have been caused by the over-ramming of the Iowa's gunpowder bags.

Sandia representatives helped perform new tests and were able to recreate an ignition, the sources said.

Sen. John Warner of Virginia, ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a former Navy secretary, said the new tests ``showed that under certain mechanical conditions there can be an accidental misfire of the powder.'' But he said it was important not to ``leap to judgment or conclusion'' about what happened aboard the Iowa.