Federal prosecutors just indicted the captain of the dive boat that caught fire last year off the Southern California coast on 34 counts of manslaughter. The captain, Jerry Boylan, 67, is expected to turn himself in to authorities within the next few weeks.
A fast-moving fire broke out at night on the 75-foot dive boat Conception on Sept. 2, 2019, Labor Day Weekend, when it was anchored off Santa Cruz Island, off the coast of Santa Barbara. The boat was on a three-day chartered dive trip, with 33 passengers and six crew on board. All the passengers, and one crew member, were sleeping on a lower deck and died in the fire. Boylan and four other crew, who were sleeping on the upper deck, escaped.
U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna said the indictment alleges that Boylan caused the death of 34 people “by his misconduct, negligence, and inattention to his duties.” Prosecutors said he did not post a night watch, did not conduct enough fire drills, and failed to conduct sufficient crew training. They said he “was responsible for the safety and security of the vessel, its crew, and its passengers,” and that he failed to “follow well-established safety rules.”
As a result, Hanna said, “A pleasant holiday dive trip turned into a hellish nightmare as passengers and one crew member found themselves trapped in a fiery bunk room with no means of escape.”
Last month the National Transportation Safety Board issued its report about the fire, basically concluding that Truth Aquatics, the boat’s owners, and Boylan shared responsibility for the deaths. The NTSB said the fire started on an aft deck area where the passengers were recharging cameras and phones, including many devices with lithium-ion batteries. They said if the captain had designated a night watch, the fire could have been detected sooner.
Boylan told the Coast Guard that by the time the crew woke him up, the fire had spread to the upper deck and that the wheelhouse was full of smoke. He made a VHF distress call at 3 a.m., gasping “I can’t breathe.” Boylan and two other crew jumped in the water to escape the flames, but then they swam back to the boat and got on board, only to have to flee again.
Boylan was indicted on 34 counts of seaman’s manslaughter, which involves misconduct or negligence in deaths on vessels on U.S. waters. Each count carries a maximum of 10 years in prison. News agencies said that Boylan was not available for comment. Read more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/01/us/conception-boat-fire-manslaughter.html
