Video: 'USS Iowa Gun Turret Explosion - Australian TV News Item (1989)'

(Wednesday, April 19, 1989, 9:53 a.m. local time; during the USS Iowa turret explosion) — 47 sailors were killed today when an explosion and fire tore through a huge gun turret aboard the battleship Iowa about 300 miles northeast of Puerto Rico.

Pentagon officials said the explosion occurred in one of the three main 16-inch turrets, which hold the largest naval guns in the world, in a firing exercise during maneuvers with the U.S. Second Fleet and ships from Brazil and Venezuela.

The Navy initially suspected that a dead crew member had deliberately sparked the blast, but later said there was no proof of that.