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Federal authorities
commissioned search warrants on Sunday to the company that operated the Design Diving Boat, on which 34 people were killed in a fire that swept the ship while it was anchored off the coast. Santa Cruz Island on Labor Day.
Investigators
with the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the US Coast Guard
executed the warrants shortly after 8 am at the Truth Aquatics headquarters in Santa Barbara, law enforcement officials said. The investigators were looking for training, security and maintenance records.
Officers also searched two other company-owned boats, including one similar to Conception, a 75-foot ship that burned and sank in the early morning of September 2. Truth Aquatics is a dive boat operator offering water and diving tours.
The investigators took pictures and boxes during the search, which is part of the ongoing investigation into the incident, said Lt. Col. Erik Raney of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office. No arrests have been made.
"I see it as a normal course," he said. "You can only do a lot with your basic investigative efforts, and at some point you have to use a search warrant as a means of collecting information."
This decision comes in the middle of an increasingly intense investigation into the worst maritime disaster in modern California history.
Law enforcement officials told the Times last week that a preliminary investigation into Conception's fire had revealed serious safety issues on board the vessel, including the lack of a "watchman". roaming night "responsible for staying awake and alerting passengers in case of problems. fire or other hazards.
The investigation also asked whether the crew had received adequate training and whether the passengers had received a full security briefing, the sources said on condition of anonymity because they did not had not been allowed to comment publicly on the case.
The fire was declared during a dive expedition organized on Labor Day weekend, trapping the sleeping victims. Five crew members who were over the bridge at that time were able to escape and said that the fire was too intense for anyone to go out.
Authorities did not say that the fire and deaths were the result of criminal acts, but prosecutors from the US Attorney's Office in Los Angeles were on the scene Thursday preparing to help the investigators and keep an eye on the current investigation.
Last year in Missouri, federal prosecutors used a federal law called "manslaughter of a seafarer" to indict a duck boat captain and two other people about the loss of 17 lives as a result the capsizing of the amphibious craft.
In this case, it was the Coast Guard investigators who made the case for criminal negligence. The pilot-in-command is accused of failing to assess weather conditions, mishandling the vessel and preparing passengers for abandonment.
Sheriff Bill Brown of Santa Barbara County, who is also a coroner, said that a pathologist had determined that no traditional autopsy would be performed on the victims.
"Our pathologist is convinced that the victims were victims of smoke inhalation," he said. "It will probably be the cause of death."
Brown said he consulted with local, state, and federal authorities before making the decision not to perform an autopsy. An external examination and toxicological samples were taken from each victim, he said.
The final decision on the causes of death will not come until a formal cause of fire is established, he added.
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