Crew asleep when fire broke out
Dive boat Conception had no one on night watch, a violation of maritime rules, experts say
The entire crew of the Conception was asleep when a deadly fire swept through their diving boat off the Santa Barbara coast, waking up after flames engulfed the cabin in the predawn darkness Sept. 2 and too late to rescue passengers, a preliminary federal report released Thursday confirmed.
The National Transportation Safety Board’s two-page summary of its preliminary investigation showed the five crew members above deck tried but failed to reach 33 doomed passengers and one crew member engulfed in flames and smoke below deck.
The disaster already has spawned a criminal investigation and widespread grief among several Bay Area families and the diving community in what is among the worst maritime disasters in the state’s history.
Chris Rosas, stepfather of three sisters —
Angela Rose Quitasol, Evan Michel Quitasol and Nicole Storm Quitasol — who died on board the Conception, said Thursday’s confirmation that all crew members were asleep when the fire broke out was “perplexing” and “horrible.”
“I’ve been aboard ships, and there’s always somebody who’s in charge and awake and sometimes full crews are awake,” Rosas said.
The U. S. Coast Guard said Thursday it could not comment on watch regulations or the NTSB’s preliminary report. But experts in maritime law and marine disasters have said the ship should have had at least one crew member on night watch, which posted regulations seem to affirm.
“You should have someone standing watch,” said Reginald E. McKamie, a Houston-based master mariner and maritime lawyer who has served as an expert witness in numerous cases. “You never know what might happen. You could have another vessel come by, but you also want to go around and have a fire watch to make sure nothing’s smoldering.”
The NTSB report is an initial, public step in an investigation likely to take months and involving personnel from the NTSB, Coast Guard, FBI, the U. S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, as well as state and local officials.
The 75-foot Conception, operated by Truth Aquatics Inc. of Santa Barbara, was anchored off the Channel Islands for a Labor Day weekend diving excursion. The three-level, wood and fiberglass craft custom built in 1981 carried six crew members and 33 passengers.
Investigators have not identified the source of the fire, according to the new report.
But the NTSB preliminary report pieces together an early narrative: An unidentified crew member who was asleep in the wheelhouse was awakened by a noise in the early morning hours and got up to investigate.
That crew member saw a fire at the aft end of the sun deck, rising up from the salon compartment below. The crew member alerted other crew sleeping behind the upper deck wheelhouse, and the captain radioed a distress message at 3:14 a.m. to the Coast Guard.
Unable to use the aft ladder because it was on fire, the crew members jumped down to the main deck, one of them breaking a leg in the process, and tried to access the salon and galley compartment to reach the passengers’ below- deck bunk room.
The only access to the passenger sleeping quarters, which were equipped with two locally sounding overhead smoke detectors, was down a ladder well in the forward, starboard corner of the salon or an emergency escape hatch on the aft end that also exited to the salon.
But the salon was fully engulfed by fire at the aft end, the report said, and by thick smoke at the forward end. Crew members were unable to open a window at the forward end and, overwhelmed by smoke, they jumped overboard.
Two crew members and the captain swam to the stern where they reboarded the vessel. They opened the hatch to the engine room and saw no fire. With flames blocking their access to the aft doors of the salon, they launched a small skiff, picked up the other two crew members from the water and sped to a nearby recreational boat, the Grape Escape. The Conception captain continued radioing for help while two other crew members returned to search for survivors around the burning hull.
The Coast Guard and local fire departments responded to the scene at Platts Harbor off Santa Cruz Island, about 25 miles offshore from Santa Barbara. But the Conception burned to the waterline by morning and sank in about 60 feet of water.
The initial summary was based on interviews with three of the five surviving crew members, who told investigators they knew of no existing issues with mechanical or electric systems.
The report also states that investigators have collected documents from previous inspections of the Conception and its sister vessel, Vision. They plan to study similar boats and their alarm systems, evacuation routes and other safety measures.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said last week many of the victims appeared to have suffocated from smoke inhalation.
Investigators from federal and local agencies also have been searching for clues amid the wreck, which on Thursday was raised from a resting place 65 feet below the surface off Santa Cruz Island. Brown said the boat will be lifted onto a barge and taken to an “undisclosed secure location.” On Wednesday, rescue divers recovered the last body from the wreckage.
Brown said all 34 victims have been identified and their families have been notified; all but one have been positively identified through DNA, with the remaining victim having been identified through fingerprints. A full identification of that victim is expected once an overseas family member submits a DNA reference sample, Brown said.
“May they all rest in peace and their families know that all of us involved in this sad operation continue to hold them in our hearts and in our prayers,” Brown said.
The Coast Guard offered new safety guidelines, including recommendations to limit onboard charging of cellphones, laptops and other devices powered by lithium ion batteries.
Federal prosecutors filed search warrants against Truth Aquatics and also gathered evidence from the company’s two other leisure boats. Truth Aquatics filed a preemptive suit shortly after the fire, claiming the company and owners Glen and Dana Fritzler properly maintained, equipped and staffed the vessel. The suit is a common tactic under 19th-century maritime law that allows ship owners to limit liability in future civil actions.
But McKamie said a finding that crew members failed to follow required procedures could lead to criminal charges for the crew and jeopardize any liability protection for the owners.
“If the customs and procedures of ships are not followed and the owner and master knew that, then that’s a problem as far as whether the limitation will be successful or not,” McKamie said. “If it’s shown they were negligent and caused the deaths of these individuals, they could face serious criminal penalties.”
The tragedy upends the sterling reputation Truth Aquatics had earned within the diving community.
“In my experience, they are a very professional and safety- oriented organization,” said Sacramentoarea scuba instructor Stephen Walch, who has been on a number of diving trips with Truth Aquatics. “If they were required to have a watch at all times, there’s no getting around that.”
James Adamic, whose sister, Diana Adamic, her husband, Steve Salika, and their daughter Tia Salika of Santa Cruz perished on the Conception, said someone should have been on watch and there should have been better alarms and evacuation training.
“I don’t think anyone was intentionally negligent, but it’s just the overconfidence,” Adamic said Thursday. “Once it got to the point that the crew was aware of it, these people had no chance.”
Coast Guard records indicated Truth Aquatics has had issues before with crew members falling asleep. On Oct. 13, 2008, the Conception’s sister ship Truth was carrying 24 passengers from Santa Cruz Island to Santa Rosa Island in the early morning hours when a crew member fell asleep at the helm and ran aground. There was no damage, deaths or injuries, and the Coast Guard did not consider it a serious incident. But the Coast Guard noted the mate was inadequately licensed and “evidence of improper watchstanding/ rest periods.”
The Conception victims included 21 women and 13 men, ranging in age from teenagers to a 62-year- old. Among those lost was Santa Cruz diving instructor Kristy Finstad, 41, a marine biologist who ran Worldwide Diving Adventures and was a frequent passenger aboard the Conception. A Los Altos father and daughter, Scott and Kendra Chan, also perished.
“You’ve got 30-something lives on board,” McKamie said. “The custom of the sea is you need to be on fire watch.”