Danish submarine inventor charged
Swedish journalist missing; sunken vessel recovered.
Peter Madsen was arrested after his only passenger, a Swedish journalist, went missing, according to the local media.
COPENHAGEN, DENMARK
Did a Danish submarine — inventor kill his only passenger, a Swedish journalist who had accompanied him onboard for a story?
The question is gripping the public’s imagination and making headlines in Denmark and Sweden.
The inventor, Peter Madsen, an amateur space rocket and submarine builder known here as “Rocket Madsen,” was arrested and jailed on charges of involuntary manslaughter, according to the local media, even though the journalist, Kim Wall, 30, remains missing.
On Saturday, Madsen, 46, appeared before a judge, but the prosecution did not say how, where or why Wall was killed. The defendant denied any wrongdoing.
Wall, a freelance journalist, vanished Thursday after leaving the port of Copenhagen on the UC3 Nautilus, a submarine built and operated by Madsen.
As the vessel left Copenhagen, a passer-by happened to take a photograph showing Wall smiling from the submarine’s conning tower, according to the local media. She has not been seen or heard from since.
Early Friday, her boyfriend reported her missing, and a search-and-rescue operation quickly found the vessel in a bay south of Copenhagen. The 26-foot submarine sank just as Madsen jumped into the water and swam toward a rescue boat, a rescuer said.
As he was brought to shore, Madsen told the local television station TV2 that he had been on a test drive when he ran into problems with a valve on a ballast tank on the vessel.
“I was toying with various things on the submarine and then an error occurred,” he said, adding that he had only 30 seconds to leave the vessel before it sank.
According to a police statement, Madsen said he dropped off Wall in a remote part of the port of Copenhagen around 10.30 p.m. and continued alone.
A family statement sent by Tom Wall, Kim Wall’s brother, said she had been with Madsen for an interview when she vanished.
“We sincerely hope that she will be found and that she is well,” the statement said.
Kim Wall is a graduate of Columbia University, and her work has appeared in a wide range of international publications.
Christopher Harres, a Columbia graduate and an investigative journalist in Mobile, Ala., said of Wall: “She was literally loved everywhere she went. Her smile and charm could get her into events and past police cordons. Her smile filled your heart, her humor and hilarious observations could put you on the floor.”
On Saturday, authorities raised the vessel from a depth of 22 feet and started taking it to shore. For years Madsen has led a community of amateurs in Copenhagen working to launch the world’s first manned amateur space rocket.
Madsen had planned three launches this summer in preparation for a possible space mission in 2019 with only himself onboard. He has been described by local news outlets as a maverick and a “Gyro Gearloose” with high ambitions and low social skills.
“He argues with every Tom, Dick and Harry. I’ve argued with him as well. But that’s what it’s like with people driven by deep passion,” Thomas Djursing, an editor who wrote a book about Madsen, told the daily newspaper BT.
In 2015, the inventor had a severe argument over ownership of the UC3 Nautilus. In the end, his supporters pulled out.
In a message published on the association’s website two years ago, his associates quoted a text message from Madsen that rings ominously today: “A curse lies over Nautilus. That curse is me. There will not be calm around Nautilus as long as I exist.”