Conception Captain Found Guilty of Manslaughter

[lowwall]

The reasoning in the article looks off to me. It reads like Boylan and crew did nothing to try to help the trapped people at the time, even though the fire was too far gone to do much. It's not until toward the end that the lack of a required roving night watch (here labeled required 'night patrol') is mentioned, and that was a key concern. Also alleged is a lack of smoke detectors - refresh my memory, were they saying the boat had none at all?

In other words, the impression I get from reading this article is that the main concern was captain and crew abandoning trapped people they could've helped to die in a fire.

My understanding from other threads on ScubaBoard was that the key concern was alleged negligence beforehand (particularly not having that roving night watch; there's also been discussion on whether a good smoking alarm system would've made the difference)), creating a situation where a fire had time to get out of control before it was detected.

The journalist quoted sources so I'm not blaming him/her. From discussion in the thread on the trial, I take it the accusation here focused on wrongdoing before the fire, not how captain and crew reacted once it was found.

The prosecutors and the journalists share a desire to frame the situation in a way that is simple to understand and grabs at people's emotions. If that means emphasizing barely relevant issues while relegating the stuff that really matters to below the fold, then that's what they are going to do. That's assuming that the journalist even understands what the relevant issues are. All too often they just parrot what is being told to them.

The captain's actions once the fire was already well underway are irrelevant in this case as it certainly appears there was nothing he could have done once he was awakened to affect the outcome. It's what he should have done before the fire that matters. But apparently it's easier to sell a story of cowardice than one of failing to fulfill professional duties.

I suspect the judge wasn't swayed by this, it would be interesting to see what his instructions to the jury were.

Either way, as divers we are more interested in the fundamental failures that led to this tragic outcome so we can avoid being victims of such an event. IMO, those fall into two classes. First were issues with the vessel itself including to one extent or another the lack of detectors and sprinklers, the routing of the only emergency exit through the salon space, lack of a safe setup for battery charging and apparently trash storage, and the vessel construction of wood and fiberglass. I'm sure there were more issues that an expert would spot, but these jump out at me.

Second, and this is where the captain's negligence comes in, were procedural issues such as the failure to train and drill crew members on the firefighting equipment and the failure to maintain a roving watch.

 

[berndo]

When they got through it, they would have found themselves in the same room as the people going out the primary exit.

I don't think you can call it an exit, when the hatch or door goes to another room. AFAIF even in a building, the emergency exit needs to be a door that goes to the outside.

 

[Kendall Raine]

Truth Aquatics was really the only multi day scuba trip operation for CA. Now there are no other options except for I believe the other renamed vessels that were truth aquatics boats.

The current SoCal dive boat fleet is a pale shadow of 20 years ago, but there are other multi-day boat options (other than Truth and Vision).

 

[NAUI Wowie]

Here is a newspaper quote from the day the case went to the jury. I misremembered how long after the captain's mayday call the video was made. It was 3 minutes, not 15 seconds. It gives an idea how long the crew had to fight the fire and save the victims, if they had known how the firefighting equipment worked.

Families of the Conception victims have filled the courtroom in downtown Los Angeles during the eight-day trial, the testimony punctuated by the sound of their stifled weeping. For the families, one of the hardest pieces of evidence to bear was the 24-second video taken from the iPhone of Patricia Ann Beitzinger, an Arizona woman who died on the boat.​

She took the video at 3:17 a.m., three minutes after Boylan’s mayday call. The video, played early in the trial and again Friday, shows the dark outlines of people trapped in the bunk room as the fire approaches. The voices are muffled and difficult to hear, but prosecutors supplied a transcript to jurors:​

“There’s got to be a way out...”​

“There’s got to be more extinguishers...”​

“We’re gonna die...”​

​

Edit: It is impossible to imagine the horror of their deaths.

Jesus. I mean, theoretically it may have been enough time to hose down the rear escape exit which is over a persons bunk. With enough water maybe they could have gotten out. The crew couldnt have gotten the hoses pointed at the stairway as its so steep you almost climb out and that is at the front of galley opposite the back of ship where the hoses were likely at.

But like other experts have said on this thread it may not have been possible to fight even at the back as water may have had no affect on the composite materials of the boat. but i go back and forth on it as a hose pointed at the exit in back would have had water pouring down into the bunk bed and people might have survived although badly burned ... I dont know ....I know the ship and i know that exit as they showed us that rear exit over the bunk.

if i had to guess which way id take to get off through a fire i think thats the better way than the crazy steep stairs up to the front with flames already there.

Three minutes after the emergency call the video was taken. man I would think someone would have tried to go out the back bunk even with heavy smoke. Was there fire in the back at that point that the captain called or just smoke? No one will likely know that. 15 foot flames at front of galley near captain may not have been out the back yet. If the crew had been trained to get water hoses pointed at the exit.

Maybe people waited below with smoke before the fire thinking the crew would help? One way or another if there had been roving watchman every 30 minutes then he would have been awake when fire started and even if stationary in between walks could have warned people to get out. from the smell etc.

 

[Wookie]

It's a feature of American Capitalism that the economic benefit of companies being regulates is considered at least as important as the safety benefit to the public. If the Coast Guard creates regulations that economically damage existing businesses, i.e. requiring sprinklers and fire detection systems on existing boats, then they get a lot of political pushback at a minimum, and may end up in court for years over it. instead they say "well, these rules only apply to new build boats and those undergoing "major refurbishment" and everyone else can ignore them". What ends up happening is that there are no new build boats because they can't compete with the exempt boats and the actual in-service boats are unsafe.

I'll tell you a story of 2 dive boats. I used to own half of each.

Both boats started out as 34 passenger boats, based on the California model. They had a single owner whom I worked for. In 2003 a partner and I bought them both.....

One boat I ran exclusively. I had been running dive boats for many years, mostly in the Caribbean. I wanted to give my customers a choice between a crowded (Pissy wetsuits slapping you in the face while you geared up) no frills ride to the dive site and something a little more. So I lowered the passenger count on my boat by 10 pax. More room in the salon, more room on the deck. I included Nitrox ($65 retail a weekend), beer and soda, and raised my price by $100 for the same trip. I added a supervised fire detection (heat detection in the engineroom) system, added an additional head, ice machine, lots of creature comforts.

I went broke. The customer does not care about creature comforts, the price of beer, or free nitrox. The only thing they seem to care about is the bottom line.

I moved my boat to Key West and was no longer competing against my other boat. After 10 years in a new market, I was no longer losing money, and after adding a Cuba itinerary, I actually made money, but it was tough in the interim.

So, what you say is exactly correct. The Passenger Vessel Association, of which I am a member, exists as a lobbying organization to make the USCG grandfather in old crappy boats so owners won't have to upgrade them. They provide the push back.

 

[NAUI Wowie]

The current SoCal dive boat fleet is a pale shadow of 20 years ago, but there are other multi-day boat options (other than Truth and Vision).

Are they using the 2 other truth boats ? I think they are being used by other companies now

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

Here is a newspaper quote from the day the case went to the jury. I misremembered how long after the captain's mayday call the video was made. It was 3 minutes, not 15 seconds. It gives an idea how long the crew had to fight the fire and save the victims, if they had known how the firefighting equipment worked.

Families of the Conception victims have filled the courtroom in downtown Los Angeles during the eight-day trial, the testimony punctuated by the sound of their stifled weeping. For the families, one of the hardest pieces of evidence to bear was the 24-second video taken from the iPhone of Patricia Ann Beitzinger, an Arizona woman who died on the boat.​

She took the video at 3:17 a.m., three minutes after Boylan’s mayday call. The video, played early in the trial and again Friday, shows the dark outlines of people trapped in the bunk room as the fire approaches. The voices are muffled and difficult to hear, but prosecutors supplied a transcript to jurors:​

“There’s got to be a way out...”​

“There’s got to be more extinguishers...”​

“We’re gonna die...”​

​

Edit: It is impossible to imagine the horror of their deaths.

This may be the hardest comment I've ever read on ScubaBoard.

 

[lowwall]

I went broke. The customer does not care about creature comforts, the price of beer, or free nitrox. The only thing they seem to care about is the bottom line.

I wonder if things would be different today. In the US at least, divers are quite a bit older and have a little more money on average than back then. I know I'd be happy to pay extra for more space and included nitrox. The beer and soda wouldn't matter to me as I rarely drink either.

 

[NAUI Wowie]

I don't think you can call it an exit, when the hatch or door goes to another room. AFAIF even in a building, the emergency exit needs to be a door that goes to the outside.

So it has been a long time that I was on that boat but the rear exit from below was near the back exit of salon and it was basically open to the air out the back as I recall. Whereas the front exit was steep stairs up to the front of the room by the stoves. I mean im 6ft 2 inches tall and 180 pounds thin and id probably just about break my legs trying to get up those stairs knowing a fire is on board. Many people would have tried to get up and fell back down if not in athletic shape.

Id have went for the bunk exit. Dont know if it would have mattered.

 

[Eric Sedletzky]

Are they using the 2 other truth boats ? I think they are being used by other companies now

Those boats were built out of plywood with a fiberglass skin over them. The Peace was built in the same yard side by side as the Truth in 1978 I believe.
They are sister ships. The other boats, the Conception and the big one I believe are also plywood/glass boats built in the same yard in Santa Barbara but later like 1980 -‘82
I doubt that that type of boat with those construction materials and methods would be allowed to be a charter vessel in this day and age.
In order to build a steel, aluminum, or solid fiberglass boat to meet todays standards would be prohibitively expensive. Even building a plywood boat would be prohibitively expensive, but with the added fact that you can not get the same quality materials today as you were able to back then. Mostly in the frame members and the quality of marine plywood needed.
When I had my marine repair business I saw first hand some pretty scary crap.
I’m guessing the reason those boats were plywood was because wood was cheap back then and didn’t require a lot of special skills. Plywood construction was popular too. Pyver had a set of plans you could get by mail order and anybody could build a trimaran sailboat in their front yard.
Glen-L Marine designs started in the late 40’s selling plans and patterns for plywood boats and sold them with the slogan “Anybody can do it!”
They’re still in business too.