The sinking of MV Conception occurred on September 2, , when the foot 23 m dive boat caught fire and eventually sank off the coast of Santa Cruz Island , California , United States.
The boat was anchored overnight at Platts Harbor, a small undeveloped bay on the north shore of the island, with 33 passengers and 1 crew member asleep below decks when fire broke out shortly after 3 a. Five crew members, whose sleeping quarters were on the top deck, survived while everyone else on board died. The crew members were forced by the fire to jump overboard but not before placing an initial mayday call to the Coast Guard and attempting to alert the passengers.
The crew retrieved the Conception ' s skiff and motored to a nearby boat where a second radio dispatch was made. The rescue and recovery operations were coordinated by the United States Coast Guard. It is the worst maritime disaster in California since the sinking of the Brother Jonathan in , and the deadliest in the United States overall since the USS Iowa turret explosion in MV Conception was a foot 23 m liveaboard boat built in Long Beach, California , and launched in Federal and international regulations require boats over a certain size to be made of fire resistant materials and to include fire sprinklers and smoke detectors wired into the ship's electronics or linked to the bridge.
Given the vessel's age and size, Conception , at less than GT and with fewer than 49 berths, was not covered by those regulations. It was constructed of wood covered with fiberglass , as permitted by regulations last updated in The boat was laid out with three decks. The upper deck contained the wheelhouse , crew quarters, and a sun deck lounge area. The main deck, just below the upper deck, included a large cabin, which had a galley in the forward portion of the cabin where the crew could prepare meals and a salon in the aft portion with seating for meals.
The salon was accessed from the stern through a hallway lined with restrooms. The lower deck also contained the shower area, anchor locker, engine room, and lazarette a machinery space. According to the deck plans, the main access to the guest accommodations on the lower deck was the forward stairway connected to the galley and main deck cabin.
After exiting the aft escape hatch, a person would still be within the main deck cabin, approximately 3 to 4 feet 0. Conception departed Santa Barbara Harbor at a. Conception then sailed to the eastern side of the island and anchored in Smuggler's Cove overnight.
The excursion held a night dive at Quail Rock, on the northern coast near the western end of the island, from p.
The returning divers stowed flashlights, cameras, and photo strobes on the two aft tables in the salon; some of these were plugged in to charge alongside cellular phones and tablets. On the night of the fire, the second galleyhand woke at approximately a. After emptying the trash, he went back to sleep in the crew quarters on the upper deck at approximately a. The five crew members that had been sleeping on the upper deck jumped down to the main deck and one broke his leg in the process.
He tried to go aft to retrieve fire extinguishers, but his path was blocked by smoke and flames billowing out of the salon windows. As the second galleyhand was turning around towards the bow, the first galleyhand was jumping down from the port side of the wheelhouse; the first galleyhand landed awkwardly and broke his left leg, and the second galleyhand hurdled over him while running forward.
The ship's captain said the aft escape hatch was engulfed in fire and the surviving crew could do nothing to help the passengers and the second deckhand, who were all sleeping in the lower deck berths. I can't breathe. All five crew members eventually leapt into the ocean from the bow to escape the fire; the second captain, the first deckhand, and the captain retrieved the boat's skiff an inflatable dinghy from the stern, and, after retrieving the remaining crew, paddled approximately yards m to the only boat moored nearby, the Grape Escape.
Once the skiff was in the water, the two were commanded by the captain to abandon Conception again. The surviving crew put out another mayday alert from the Grape Escape at a. I can't breathe! At a. The rigging on Grape Escape made a helicopter rescue too challenging, [20] : 18 so Grape Escape proceeded to Station Channel Islands Harbor, starting at a. After arriving onsite, officials struggled to fight the fire, as the boat was in a remote location with limited firefighting resources, and the fire was moving quickly and kept flaring up.
In addition, since Conception had drifted into shallower waters, most of the fireboats on-scene were unable to continue fighting the fire for lack of clearance, including a shallow-draft Santa Barbara Harbor Patrol boat.
In order to attempt to fight the fire and allow fireboats to reach the vessel, a grappling line was secured and the still-burning Conception was towed out to deeper water by Retriever II. The hulk was not stable enough to place pumps on board to dewater it. Conception was then towed by Retriever II back to shallower waters to aid in its recovery, [35] but the boat sank stern-first about four hours after the fire broke out [8] at a. Coast Guard cutter Narwhal arrived at a. All 33 of the Conception ' s passengers and one of its six crew members were killed the night of the fire; the other five crew members, including the captain, escaped with injuries.
The 34 killed were all sleeping in the lower deck bunkroom. Divers located 25 bodies by September 2, while nine other people remained missing. Four floating bodies were initially recovered at Dead Sea Boat Excursion Jack the time of the sinking, and another sixteen were pulled from the water later. Another five bodies were visible in the vessel but unreachable because of concerns about unsafe conditions on the boat. At that time, the unaccounted victims were presumed dead. Most of the victims were from California.
One couple was from Arizona. The coroner determined that the cause of death was smoke inhalation , [50] [51] determined by toxicology tests showing lethal levels of carbon monoxide in their blood and the presence of black soot in their tracheas. Truth Aquatics had a good reputation locally, and maintained their boats in good condition, according to state Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson , who represents the Santa Barbara area.
Senator Dianne Feinstein called for an investigation into the incident and specifically asked to address the training of the crew and why they were not able to rescue or alert the passengers. She also wanted to see if additional regulations are needed to prevent similar tragedies in the future. Via press release, Feinstein stated "It's inconceivable that with all the safety regulations we have in place today, a fire on a boat can lead to the loss of life we saw this morning near Santa Cruz Island".
The on-scene portion of the investigation was scheduled to last for ten days, with the objective to determine the cause of the fire and verify the safety measures that had been aboard Conception. It was a tight space. Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ATF immediately responded, but investigatory agents did not arrive until September 7, to investigate the point of ignition and cause of the blaze.
The focus of the investigation is on records retrieved from the offices of Truth Aquatics, prompted by a preliminary investigation which indicated potential deficiencies in crew training, passenger safety briefings, and the failure to use a roaming "night watchman".
The four members of the MBI will Dead Sea Boat Excursion 003 determine contributing factors, including whether the actions of certified people or any Coast Guard or government personnel may have contributed to the loss.
The wreck was examined by government officials after it was retrieved and brought to Port Hueneme on September 13; the ATF examination concluded September 27, but no immediate cause of the fire was determined. Conception was rolled upright while underwater on September 6.
Continued adverse weather conditions prevented the raising of the wreck [36] until September National Transportation Safety Board investigators were permitted to examine the wreck on September 24 and The NTSB expected to conclude its investigation and declare a cause after twelve to eighteen months of investigations.
The designer of the vessel speculated the fire may have begun in the bunk area, possibly sparked by a lithium battery. The sheer number of devices charging at once may have overloaded circuits, or the devices' lithium-ion batteries may have overloaded. While there were smoke detectors on the Conception , the surviving crew did not believe any alarms sounded before they discovered the fire.
The detectors were of the standard type for home use, which, at the time both Conception and Vision were built, met existing safety requirements. According to the Los Angeles Times , the preliminary investigation identified the lack of a roaming night watch as a safety deficiency, [73] [74] in violation of the conditions in the vessel's Certificate of Inspection [15] and 46 C. In addition, emergency escapes were to be clearly identified, verified functional, and free of obstructions.
NTSB issued a preliminary report on the fire on September On August 31, , the NTSB advised families that it had substantially completed its investigation, and would publish evidence and interviews before a public hearing and a vote on findings in October. The report stated that the deaths may have been prevented if the boat had a roving watchman, as required by regulations.
Although the NTSB was not able to determine the definitive cause of the fire, the likely origin point was in the aft part of the salon, and the most likely sources included the electrical distribution system, unattended battery charging, or improperly discarded smoking materials.
Because of the pending criminal investigation of the fatal fire, the NTSB was requested to not interview the ship's captain, the first galley hand, or any Truth Aquatics employee responsible for operations. Company records were seized during a search of the company's offices and two remaining vessels that occurred from September 8 to 10, ; the NTSB was not granted access to any of the seized information until February Because the required Coast Guard vessel inspection occurs in port, without passengers embarked, there is no way to verify compliance with the night patrol requirement.
Sumwalt added "This tragedy did not need to happen. We hope that our actions from today will prevent such disaster in the future. Truth Aquatics was also faulted for "deviating from required safe practices for some time" prior to the accident, despite their reputation for operating, according to a former captain of the sister boat Vision , "the safest boats on the coast.
New crewmembers were not required to read and understand emergency procedures prior to getting underway. Fire drills were not held regularly. Passenger briefings were not conducted as soon as possible after leaving port. Collectively, the NTSB called it "a habitual disregard for rules, policies, and procedures" and the resulting normalization of deviance could have been discovered earlier if Truth Aquatics "had been actively engaged in ensuring the safe practices required by regulations were being followed".
In addition, the contributing causes were determined to be the inadequate regulation of smoke detection in all accommodation spaces, and inadequate emergency escape arrangements. Existing regulations only required modular smoke detector s in overnight accommodation spaces; [84] because the fire likely started in the salon, away from the passenger berths and the galley area, the fire was already well-developed by the time the smoke and heat detectors could alarm.
If the smoke detectors were deployed in all passenger spaces, not just their sleeping berths, and were interconnected so that all would alarm when any one detected smoke, that would have increased the chance the fire could have been detected early enough to allow for effective firefighting and evacuation.
The inadequacy of escape arrangements was also highlighted. Bunks immediately underneath the secondary exit hatch were cited as an obstacle. Graham stated "I don't see how an average human with a life jacket on could get up through that hatch Recommended changes included stricter requirements for interconnected smoke detectors comprehensively deployed in all passenger accommodation spaces, development of an inspection procedure to verify that roving patrols are implemented, and secondary escape paths that provide an alternate exit point.
Barberi in and California Governor Gavin Newsom issued a statement through Twitter praising the efforts of the emergency medical workers and offering his condolences to the families and loved ones affected. Truth Aquatics suspended operations on their remaining two boats following the disaster.
The United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation held a hearing on November 14, to discuss commercial and passenger vessel safety. Salud Carbajal , whose district includes Santa Barbara, Rep. Julia Brownley , and Sen.
The first lawsuit against Truth Aquatics was filed one week later on September 12, by one of the surviving crew members from Conception. The civil lawsuit, filed in Ventura County Superior Court against Truth Aquatics, Worldwide Diving Adventures, and the Conception 's owner, claimed the crew had not received proper training nor was the boat outfitted with appropriate emergency equipment.
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