Jerry Boylan, captain of the MV Conception scuba diving liveaboard that caught fire in 2019, killing 34 people on board, has been found guilty of criminal negligence by a Los Angeles court.
A federal jury found Boylan, 69, guilty of misconduct or neglect of a ship’s officer, a pre-Civil War law commonly known as ‘seaman’s manslaughter’. Boylan had pled not guilty to the charge.
The Conception disaster, the worst in Californian maritime history for almost 150 years, began when a fire broke out in the liveaboard’s saloon in the early morning of 2 September 2019, while the boat was moored off the island of Santa Cruz on the final night of a three-day tour of California’s Channel Islands.
33 passengers and one member of the crew, who were trapped below decks due to a blocked emergency exit from the sleeping quarters, lost their lives during the disaster.
Footage from one of the victim’s mobile phones recovered from the wreckage showed that some of the guests were awake and actively searching for an escape route before succumbing to the flames. The courtroom, in which several members of the victims’ families were present, was shown the 24-second video during the trial.
During the trial, the prosecution said that Captain Boylan had failed to post a roving night watch, as required by maritime law, and that his crew had not been properly trained in firefighting procedures. Boylan’s defence attorneys argued in response that it was the owner of the boat, Glen Fritzler of Truth Aquatics, who should have taken responsibility for training the crew.
Prosecution attorneys also said that, as the first person to abandon ship, Boylan had failed in his duties to attempt to fight the fire, or warn the passengers, before jumping overboard.
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The cause of the fire has never been officially determined. Based on photographs recovered from a passenger’s camera, the US National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) official report speculated that a charging station overcrowded with multiple electronic devices was to blame.
However, a later report from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) published by the Los Angeles Times suggested it may have been caused by an incompletely extinguished cigarette disposed of in a plastic waste bin.
Civil lawsuits are still pending against Truth Aquatics, which sought to clear itself from financial responsibility for the disaster by filing a suit under an old maritime law that limits the company’s liability in the event of an accident to the remaining value of the vessel – which, in the case of the MV Conception, was practically nothing.
A wrongful-death lawsuit is also pending against the US Coastguard, for failing to enforce appropriate safety regulations.
A number of changes to maritime law were swiftly passed by the US Government in the wake of the Conception disaster, in which all covered vessels will be required to have fire detection systems, fire extinguishers, safer device charging zones and unobstructed escape routes. Crews are also required to undergo firefighting training and conduct emergency escape drills.
Captain Boylan is due to be sentenced in February, and may receive up to 10 years in prison.
