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A federal judge in Los Angeles on Friday dismissed the criminal indictment against a dive boat captain charged with manslaughter in the deaths of 34 people when the vessel caught fire and sank off the California coast three years ago. The 75-foot (23-meter) Conception caught fire while most of those onboard were sleeping, killing 33 passengers and a crew member. It is considered one of California’s worst maritime disasters. U.S. District Judge George Wu said in a ruling that the indictment, handed down on December 2020 against captain Jerry Nehl Boylan by a federal grand jury, must be thrown out...

Federal investigators on Thursday released a preliminary report on the Conception boat that killed nearly three-dozen people earlier this month off the coast of California, and said the entire crew was asleep when the blaze began. National Transportation Safety Board officials have said the full investigation could take more than a year, and preliminary findings highlight remaining questions as much as they provide answers as to how the tragedy happened. “A crew member sleeping in the wheelhouse berths was awakened by a noise and got up to investigate,” the report said. “As crew members awoke, the captain radioed a distress...

Boats like the Conception, which caught fire around 3 a.m. on Sept. 2 and sank, are required to have a crewmember keep watch at night. The National Transportation Safety Board has been investigating the tragedy and released a two-page preliminary report that said five crew members were sleeping in their quarters behind the wheelhouse on the second deck and another below deck when the fire broke out. The report comes as investigators seek to determine the cause and try to recover the wreckage of the Conception from the bottom of the sea amid an ongoing criminal probe conducted by the...

Surviving crew were driven back by the fire off the coast of Southern CaliforniaThey are said to have told investigators in 'very lengthy, detailed, comprehensive interviews' the harrowing story of the moments after the fire erupted MondayJumping from the ship's bridge to its main deck, they tried to get into the galleyWith the galley's doors on fire, they tried to get through windows but could not'At that point, due to heat, flames and smoke, the crew had to jump', officials sayTwo retrieved a skiff to see if they could rescue any survivors. None were foundThe only crew member to...

LOS ANGELES — One of the crew members aboard the dive boat Conception hadn’t been asleep long when a noise jolted him awake. He swung open the door of the wheelhouse — the top level of the 75-foot boat, located just above the galley — and was greeted by flames. As the fire raged in the predawn hours of Labor Day, the vessel’s captain made a frantic mayday call to the Coast Guard. Then he and four crew members jumped from the wheelhouse and climbed into a dinghy to get help from the Grape Escape, a fishing boat anchored nearby...

<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — Officials vowed to find what sparked the inferno aboard the dive boat Conception that killed 34 people in waters off Southern California but vital evidence may have gone down with the ship or drifted out to sea.</p>

LOS ANGELES - The 75-foot dive boat Conception was considered one of the best of its kind in the region, and both it and its operator, Truth Aquatics Inc., were in compliance with U.S. Coast Guard regulations. That all changed Monday in the flash of a predawn fire near Santa Cruz Island, when the Conception sank in flames, taking with it more than 30 people who were below deck in bunk beds, apparently unable to get out.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — A middle-of-the-night fire swept a boat carrying recreational scuba divers anchored near an island off the Southern California coast early Monday, leaving at least 25 dead and nine others missing. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr Matthew Kroll said Monday night that 25 people had died. Five of six crew members on the Conception escaped by jumping into an inflatable boat they steered to a nearby vessel. Rescuers initially recovered four bodies about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles just off Santa Cruz Island, and 16 others were pulled from the water later in the...

At least 34 people were feared dead after a boat caught fire off Santa Cruz Island, California, early Monday morning, officials have confirmed. Fox affiliate KTTV earlier confirmed there were nearly three dozen fatalities, but Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr Matthew Kroll told Fox News the 34 people were unaccounted for from a commercial diving ship. The captain of the boat was helping with the rescue. Four other people were rescued. Lt. Cmdr Kroll later confirmed the ship sunk near the north shore of Santa Cruz Island after taking on water. At least 34 people were feared dead after a boat...

VENTURA COUNTY, California – The Ventura County Fire Department has confirmed 34 people have been killed in a boat incident off the Ventura County coast.

On a rugged island just offshore from Ventura County, archaeologists have turned up evidence of some of the oldest human activity in coastal Southern California. On Santa Cruz Island, the largest of the Channel Islands, researchers have found three sites scattered with ancient tool-making debris and the shells of harvested shellfish. The youngest of the three sites has been dated to 6,600 BCE, but based on the types of tools found at the other two, archaeologists say they may be as much as 11,000 to 12,000 years old. The artifacts are traces of what's known as the Island Paleocoastal culture,...