b'SAFETY MATTERS:NTSB Holds Hearing onSAFETYM/V CONCEPTION FIREERIC CHRISTENSEN // PVA DIRECTOR OF REGULATORY AFFAIRS & RISK MANAGEMENTO n October 20, 2020, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded its investigation into the fire aboard the overnight dive boat M/V Conception, operated by Truth Aquatics (not a PVA member), which burned and sank off Southern Californias Santa Cruz Island on September 2, 2019. All 33 passengers and one crewmember died in the fire. The remaining five crew members survived the fire by jumping off the vessel.This accident resulted in the most significant loss of life on a domestic passenger vessel since the October 1976 loss of the passenger ferry M/V George Prince in New Orleans following a collision with a Norwegian tanker. The M/V Conception was a 75-foot small passenger vessel built in 1981 for overnight diving operations. The vessel was constructed of wood and fiberglass and inspected as a small passenger vessel under 46 CFR Subchapter T. The vessel had a galley and salon on the main deck and passenger berthing below the main deck. Crew accommodations were located aft of the bridge on the second deck. M/V Conception. Photo: Truth AquaticsTHE CASUALTY and 1 crewmember and all 33 passengers were asleep in the bunkroom below At approximately 3:14 a.m. PDT on September 2, 2019, thethe main deck. A crewmember sleeping in an upper deck berth was awakened Coast Guard received a distress call from the Master onboard theby a noise and got up to investigate. He saw a glow outside. Realizing that M/V Conception, anchored off Santa Cruz Island, 21.5 nauticalthere was a fire rising up from the salon compartment directly below, the miles south-southwest of Santa Barbara, California, reportingcrewmember alerted the four other crewmembers sleeping on the upper deck. the vessel was on fire.When the fire started, 5 crewmembers wereCrewmembers jumped down to the main deck and attempted to access the asleep in their bunks in the crew berthing on the upper deck,salon to assist the passengers and crewmember in a bunkroom below the main deck but were blocked by fire and overwhelmed by thick smoke. The five surviving crewmembers jumped overboard. Two crewmembers swam to thestern,re-boardedthevessel,andfoundthe access to the salon through the aft corridor was alsoblockedbyfire,so,alongwiththecaptain who also had swum to the stern, they launched the vessels skiff and picked up the remaining two crewmembers in the water. The crew transferred to a recreational vessel anchored nearby where the captain again radioed for help. Two crewmembers returned to the waters around the burning vessel to search for possible survivors. The Coast Guard andotherfirstresponderboatsbeganarriving onsceneat4:27a.m.Despitefirefightingand search and rescue efforts, the vessel burned to the waterlineandsankjustafterdaybreak,andno survivors were found. TheCoastGuardandNTSBinitiated investigations into the accident. Subsequent to the safetyinvestigations,theDepartmentofJustice opened a criminal investigation.SAFETY MATTERS 32 FOGHORN'