Dive Pacific 171 Oct- Nov 2019

Dive boat tragedy kills 34 off
California coast
Investigators in the US have
been examining potential
ignition sources, including
overloaded electronics
causing a short, of the deadly
fire that swept through the
scuba dive boat Conception
off the coast of Southern
California killing 34 people on
board.
The boat was gutted and sank
in 20 metres of water before
dawn on Monday September 2nd
while anchored off Santa Cruz
Island.
Jennifer Homendy, a member of the
US National Transportation Safety
Board, said she had inspected a
vessel similar to the Conception
and was concerned about the
accessibility of its emergency exit
hatch and possible difficulties
getting to safety.
Other officials reportedly said
those who died were below deck
after flames blocked the one
stairway and the hatch leading
from sleeping bunks to the upper
decks, giving those below virtually
no chance of getting out.
But preliminary findings on the
causes of death, announced by
Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill
Brown, raise the possibility the
victims inhaled highly toxic smoke
and died in their sleep before being
burned beyond recognition. Twentythree
of the 33 bodies recovered
were identified through DNA.
The Conception’s captain and four
other crew members were asleep
above deck at the time and jumped
overboard. They told investigators
of trying to go back to help
those who died, but being driven
back by flames, heat and smoke.
They could not get to firefighting
equipment because everything was
engulfed.
Officials said the Conception had
been in full compliance with Coast
Guard regulations.
Victims included a prominent
marine environmental scientist
and her husband, high schoolers,
a hairdresser, a marine biologist,
software engineers, a special
effects designer for Disney, nature
photographer, nurse and a family
of five celebrating a birthday. They
were all on a planned three-day
excursion to the Channel Islands.
The four crew members were
tested for alcohol, which were
negative, and all five survivors had
drug tests with the results pending.
The Conception wasn’t required
by federal regulations to have fire
sprinklers aboard, according to the
US Coast Guard.
Other California divers have said
Truth Aquatics, which owned the
Conception, and its captains, were
very safety-conscious and the
tragedy shocked the industry. The
boat’s owner and others were interviewed
for hours as the National
Transportation Safety Board investigated
the fire.
Later in Santa Barabara 34
scuba tanks lined the stage
where thousands gathered to
remember those who had died.
Truth Aquatics pre-emptively
filed a lawsuit Thursday under
a pre-Civil War provision of
maritime law that could protect
it from potentially costly pay
outs to families of the dead,
a move condemned by some
observers as disrespectful and
callous.
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