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SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Authorities executed search warrants on Sunday in front of the Southern California company, owner of the scuba diving boat that caught fire and killed 34 people last week.
Officials from the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other agencies raided Truth Aquatics' offices in Santa Barbara and its two remaining ships, said Lieutenant Erik Raney of sheriff of Santa Barbara County.
Warrants issued shortly after 9 am are "a fairly standard" of the ongoing tragedy investigation to determine whether crimes have been committed, he said. The office was surrounded by a red "crime scene" tape while more than a dozen officers were taking pictures and taking out cardboards.
Thirty-four people died when Conception burned and sank before the dawn of September 2. They slept in a dormitory narrowed under the main deck and their emergency exits were blocked by fire.
The bodies of all but one victim have been found. The search for the last body was suspended this weekend due to high winds and rough seas, Raney said.
"The diving teams will meet on Monday to develop a plan and we hope to be back in the water on Tuesday," he said on Sunday.
Coast Guard records show that the design has passed its two most recent inspections without a security breach. Previous customers have stated that Truth Aquatics and the captains of his three boats are very safety conscious.
The authorities are committed to determining the cause of the fire and are looking at many aspects, including how batteries and electronic devices have been stored and charged. They will also review how the crew was trained and what team members were doing at the time of the fire. The design of the boat will also be examined, in particular to determine if an escape hatch of the cabin-dormitory was adequate.
Five crew members jumped overboard after attempting to save the 33 divers and a crew member whose escape routes had been blocked by fire, said federal authorities and the United States. owner of the boat. The crew, including the captain, said they were repulsed by the flames, the smoke and the heat.
They jumped from the deck area to the main deck – one of them broke his leg in the effort – and tried to cross the double doors of the kitchen, which were on fire.
This cut off the two escape routes from the night quarters: a staircase and an emergency hatch that came out in the kitchen area. The crew then tried, unsuccessfully, to enter through the windows at the bow of the ship.
Truth Aquatics on Thursday filed a lawsuit under a maritime law provision prior to the American Civil War that could protect it from potentially expensive payments to the families of victims, a decision condemned by some observers as disrespectful and cruel.
The company said in a Friday statement posted on Instagram that the lawsuit is an "unfortunate side of these tragedies" and pinned action on insurance companies and other so-called stakeholders.
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