''Lucona'' was a ship sunk in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by ...

on 23 January 1977 by a bomb planted by Austrian businessman

Udo Proksch Udo Proksch (29 May 1934 in Rostock, Germany – 27 June 2001 in Graz, Austria) was an Austrian businessman and industrialist. In 1991, he was convicted of the murder of six people as part of a major insurance fraud. Proksch died in prison. ' ...

, as part of an

insurance fraud Insurance fraud is any act committed to defraud an insurance process. It occurs when a claimant attempts to obtain some benefit or advantage they are not entitled to, or when an insurer knowingly denies some benefit that is due. According to th ...

. Proksch, the owner of the cargo, also then-owner of famous Viennese confectioners Demel, claimed 212 million schilling (approx. US$20 million) from his insurance company, saying that the cargo was expensive

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weakly ...

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

equipment. He was subsequently convicted in 1991 of the murder of six crew (of the crew of 12) who were killed by the explosion, and died in prison. The ''Lucona'' was located by American shipwreck hunter

David Mearns David Louis Mearns, OAM, M.Sc. (born 10 August 1958), is an American-born United Kingdom based marine scientist and oceanographer, who specializes in deep water search and recovery operations, and the discovery of the location of historic shipwr ...

in January 1991; this was his first discovered very deep water wreck, at 4,200 metres (13,799 feet). Working as a Project Manager with Eastport International, he found that the ship had been sunk by a

time bomb A time bomb (or a timebomb, time-bomb) is a bomb whose detonation is triggered by a timer. The use (or attempted use) of time bombs has been for various purposes including insurance fraud, terrorism, assassination, sabotage and warfare. They a ...

. While fraud had been suspected, investigations were obstructed by powerful Austrian politicians who were friends of Proksch. Eventually, several ex-ministers were convicted over their involvement. The ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs was sentenced for forging documents authenticating the cargo. Two other ministers were dismissed for obstructing the investigations. The Minister of Defense

Karl Lütgendorf Karl Ferdinand Lütgendorf, born Karl Ferdinand Freiherr von Lütgendorf (15 October 1914 – 9 October 1981) was an Austrian soldier and politician who served as the Defense Minister of Austria from 1971 to 1977. He died in 1981, in an apparent s ...

, a shareholder in the Proksch firm, had given permission to deliver explosives to sabotage the ship and committed suicide when that became known. Proksch fled to the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

in 1988 after

Hans Pretterebner Hans may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Hans (name), a masculine given name * Hans Raj Hans, Indian singer and politician ** Navraj Hans, Indian singer, actor, entrepreneur, cricket player and performer, son of Hans Raj Hans ** Yuvraj Hans, Punjabi ...

published a book about the scandal. Returning to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

in 1989 incognito, he was recognized and arrested. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison on March 11, 1991. Walking out of the courtroom Proksch said "Heil Hitler!". A year later the sentence was increased to life in prison. He died on 27 June 2001 during heart surgery.

Works about the ''Lucona'' case

*1988: Hans Pretterebner published a book about the ''Lucona'' case, ''Der Fall Lucona''. *1993: ', a film of the book about the ''Lucona'', starring David Suchet; se
IMDb entry

References

* * * {{Italic title Maritime incidents in 1977 Ship bombings Shipwrecks in the Indian Ocean

Works about the ''Lucona'' case

See also

References