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5. The Navy claimed Scorpion had been lost due to an accident
In 1982 the official US Navy explanation for the loss of USS Scorpion was that it was an accidental explosion of a torpedo, which occurred as the submarine took steps to disarm it. According to one senior official heavily involved in both the search for the lost submarine and the subsequent analysis of what caused its loss, it was the “one scenario that, in my opinion, fits all of the evidence”. But dissent with the finding remained within the ranks of the submarine force and among outside experts, as well as conspiracy buffs. The position was speculative, rather than confirmation.
Other elements within the Navy studied the findings, the data, and produced conflicting opinions of what they indicated. Rumors rippled that implied or outright stated that the Soviets had sunk the submarine. They were fueled in part by Scorpion’s loss being one of four unsolved submarine mysteries occurring in 1968, Israel’s Dakar, the French Navy’s Minerve, and the Soviet K-129 all sank that year in unexplained circumstances. The rumors, the dissenting opinions, and the Cold War were all reasons for the US Navy to want any additional information they could get on USS Scorpion.