GUILTY CA - Boat fire near Santa Cruz Island; 34 missing, Sept 2019 *captain charged*

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Good grief! First, the defendant's attorney was able to whittle the charges down to just one claim of Seaman's manslaughter" (there is so much wrong with that I don't even have time to go into it) then that charge is dismissed because it wasn't plead correctly. The US Attorney is asking permission to appeal. It is probably too late to dismiss and refile now. This sounds like poor prosecution.
 
news.yahoo.com

Feds say captain saved himself as California boat fire killed 34. But prosecution hits a wall

Conception dive boat Captain Jerry Boylan's criminal prosecution has become a battle over negligence on the seas.
news.yahoo.com

Prosecutors in court filings say they were alive when Boylan jumped off the top deck and ran afoul of a sacred maritime tradition: that a captain should be the last to leave his ship. The responsibilities of a captain can be traced to a 12th-century document called the Rolls of Oleron, which established the first known tenets of maritime law.

Those sleeping below deck were trapped beneath the fire. There were signs that some of those who perished were awake with their shoes on before they were killed by smoke inhalation.

The repeated delays in Boylan's case have also led to a hold being put on civil lawsuits filed by the families against Truth Aquatics and the U.S. Coast Guard for poor oversight.
 
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Blondie in Spokane said:
www.dailymail.co.uk

Dive boat captain pleads not guilty in fiery deaths of 34

A boat captain pleaded not guilty in federal court to manslaughter in the deaths of 34 people trapped below deck on his burning vessel three years ago off the Southern California coast.
www.dailymail.co.uk www.dailymail.co.uk
Click to expand...
SBBM
A federal grand jury issued a new indictment last month alleging that Captain Jerry Boylan acted with gross negligence aboard the Conception during one of the deadliest maritime disasters in recent U.S. history. A judge threw out the original case on the third anniversary of the Sept. 2, 2019, tragedy. The trial is scheduled for Dec. 20 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. Boylan faces 10 years in prison if convicted of a single count of misconduct or neglect of a ship officer - a pre-Civil War statute known as 'seaman´s manslaughter' that was designed to hold steamboat captains and crew responsible for maritime disasters.
# More at link
 
DEC 22, 2022
www.latimes.com

As Conception boat burned, video shows divers trapped below deck sought way out. 34 people died

Federal investigators recover a video recorded by a victim of the Conception boat fire tragedy as the 34 people trapped below deck tried to escape.
www.latimes.com www.latimes.com
Following the horrific Conception boat fire in 2019, authorities offered a small solace: The 33 divers and one crew member had died of smoke inhalation and may have perished in their sleep without suffering.

That theory was called into question when some of the dead were found to have been wearing their shoes, leading investigators to speculate they had tried to escape before the ship was engulfed in flames.

Now, more than three years after one of the country’s deadliest maritime accidents, a sobering piece of evidence has put the question to rest, showing conclusively that the divers were awake and searching for a way off the boat in the minutes after crew members had jumped into the water.

[...]
 
DEC 23, 2022
www.independent.com

New 'Conception' Video Surfaces - The Santa Barbara Independent

New 'Conception' video shows 24 seconds in the bunkroom as smoke filters in from fire above.
www.independent.com www.independent.com
The evolving story of the Conception dive boat got another cupful of heartbreak Thursday morning when the Los Angeles Times broke the story that the FBI had a video recording from the bunkroom where 34 people died when a fire broke out on September 2, 2019.

Some family members of the victims who had viewed the video spoke with Times reporter Richard Winton about what they’d seen: Apparently 24 seconds long, the video showed smoke gathering along the ceiling and beginning to fill the room as a fire alarm sounds. The scene is calm initially but becomes increasingly desperate before cutting out.

The investigation reports state a fire had quickly spread in the galley salon overhead. The bunkroom was belowdecks, with the two ways out: a set of stairs and a narrow escape hatch, both ending at the galley engulfed in flames. The captain, Jerry Boylan, had sent a mayday call but had abandoned ship with the crew.

[...]
 
Thanks PommyMommy

More on the 27 second video…
divemagazine.com

Conception liveaboard fire victims were trying to escape when they died - report

Video footage recovered from the Conception liveaboard fire tragedy revealed divers were trying to escape with the boat in flames
divemagazine.com divemagazine.com
The fire alarm is going off … you see smoke coming in from some of the fans and down the stairwell,’ one of the relatives, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Los Angeles Times. ‘People are walking around looking for a way to get out. Someone says, “Hey, there’s got to be another way out of here,” and their voices weren’t panicked at first.’ According to the LA Times report, the video continues, showing smoke creeping into the cabin before it starts to fill the room, as one of the divers pulls up his shirt to protect himself from the smoke. The video shows the man and another diver trying to find a way out near a stairwell that led to the galley on the floor above. The video then captured a loud noise, the cause of which is unclear, and someone saying,
‘Oh f—.’

ETA:
Capt Jerry Boylan’s trial was set for last Dec.
He was facing only 10 yrs.
Pleaded NG. He is out on bond.
I wonder if this new information that they
did not all die from smoke inhalation
will change the charge back. It should!
I can’t find a trial update for him.
Just horrific. MOO
 
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PommyMommy said:
DEC 22, 2022
www.latimes.com

As Conception boat burned, video shows divers trapped below deck sought way out. 34 people died

Federal investigators recover a video recorded by a victim of the Conception boat fire tragedy as the 34 people trapped below deck tried to escape.
www.latimes.com www.latimes.com
Following the horrific Conception boat fire in 2019, authorities offered a small solace: The 33 divers and one crew member had died of smoke inhalation and may have perished in their sleep without suffering.

That theory was called into question when some of the dead were found to have been wearing their shoes, leading investigators to speculate they had tried to escape before the ship was engulfed in flames.

Now, more than three years after one of the country’s deadliest maritime accidents, a sobering piece of evidence has put the question to rest, showing conclusively that the divers were awake and searching for a way off the boat in the minutes after crew members had jumped into the water.

[...]
Click to expand...
Oh *censored*.

I don't want to think about what my friends went through.
 
ilovewings said:
www.latimes.com

Conception boat fire that killed 34 people started in plastic trash can, confidential report says

ATF investigators conducted a series of burn tests on a full-scale mock-up of the middle deck of the dive boat and concluded the deadly blaze began in a Rubbermaid garbage bin beneath the stairs of the main deck.
www.latimes.com www.latimes.com
Click to expand...
Although the fire’s point of origin was determined, investigators still have not learned what ignited, and the ATF said the cause remains “undetermined as investigators cannot rule out discarded smoking material, the open flame ignition of combustible materials such as paper towels located with the garbage container or an event unknown to investigators.”

The 197-page report noted that Boylan smoked cigarettes, but he said he threw them overboard. Two crew members also tested positive for marijuana but denied smoking onboard. A birthday celebration with candles took place the day before the fire, but survivors said the candles were all extinguished.

ATF officials cited crew member Mickey Kohls telling NTSB and Coast Guard investigators he emptied four smaller trash bins into the 23-gallon receptacle about 2:35 a.m. the night of the fire. He was awakened about 3:12 a.m. by a popping sound and saw a glow from the middle deck.
 
www.usatoday.com

A captain jumped off his boat when it caught fire; 34 died. Was that neglect? Jurors to decide.

Opening statements came during Jerry Boylan's two-week trial in what family members of the victims view as a long overdue step toward accountability.
www.usatoday.com

The opening statements marked the second day of Boylan's two-week trial in what family members of the victims view as a long overdue step toward accountability four years after their loved died on the Conception in waters off Santa Barbara.

______

…he’s had 4 years to create the story that he “stayed in the wheel house cause that’s where the radio was”
Right…so he was the first one to jump overboard as all those trapped below were alive.
moo
 
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The first deckhand of the Conception told jurors how the captain jumped overboard as the other crew members were trying to find a way to reach the passengers trapped below.

"I don't remember hearing any firefighting instructions," French said as he recounted in sometimes halting testimony the crew's ineffective attempts to reach the people trapped below. "It didn't happen — we didn't fight the fire."

Remembering that there was a fire ax in the wheelhouse with which they could break the galley's windows, French tried to get attention of Boylan who he could see in the wheelhouse as it was filling up with smoke. However, before he was able to get Boylan's attention, the captain had jumped from the wheelhouse over the crew members scrambling around on the boat's bow and into the ocean.

I remember seeing Jerry on the back deck," after he had jumped into the ocean, French said. "I don't remember Jerry doing anything."
 
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LOS ANGELES (CN) — A 24-second iPhone video taken by one of 33 passengers who died four years ago on a burning dive boat showed the victims trapped in the smoke-filled, below-deck bunk room after the captain had already jumped overboard.

The deeply distressing video was shown Thursday afternoon at the trial of Jerry Boylan, the former captain of the doomed dive boat Conception.

The video played in court on Thursday was taken at 3:17 a.m. on September 2, 2019. Boylan had jumped ship at 3:14, moments after he had radioed the Coast Guard from the boat's upper deck.
 
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www.courthousenews.com

Captain Sean Tortora, who teaches marine firefighting courses at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, New York, was called as an expert witness for the prosecution at the trial of Jerry Boylan,
“If they had been warned, they would have been saved," Tortora told jurors in federal court in Los Angeles. If there had been a roving patrol or night watch on the vessel, "we wouldn't be sitting here today. These people would be at home," he said.

Rather than using the Conception's public address system to direct the crew members and to warn the passengers who were all sleeping below deck, Boylan radioed the Coast Guard for help, which Tortora likened to calling 911.

"A captain shouldn't abandon the vessel — he has to direct the crew," Tortora testified. "They need the captain — he cannot abdicate his duty."
"The company doesn't take the ship to sea," Tortora said. "The captain takes the ship to sea. The buck stops with the captain."

A criminal investigator with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives testified on Tuesday that the bureau's tests had determined that the fire on the Conception started in a trashcan underneath the stairs from the main deck to the upper deck where five of the crew members slept in the wheelhouse.

Edited to bold
JMO
 
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