What happened
A fire aboard the ferry Scandinavian Star killed 159 people in 1990, most of them Norwegian and Danish passengers.
The investigation
Investigations examined evidence of arson, ship safety, ownership arrangements, crew training and the possibility that more than one fire had been deliberately set.
What the courts or investigators concluded
People were convicted for safety-related failures, but the identity and motive of whoever intentionally started the fatal fires have remained disputed.
Why the case remains significant
The disaster has generated decades of reinvestigation because maritime safety failures, financial questions and unresolved arson evidence overlap in a single mass-fatality case.
Case context
Crime by Region organizes cases geographically so readers can move from one file to other investigations from the same country. For unresolved or contested cases, the wording above reflects the distinction between confirmed events, investigative theories and findings actually established in court.