5 years after deadly boat fire, NTSB demands action on safety measures

Five years after the deadly Conception dive boat fire, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Jennifer Homendy joined the victims' family members to call on the U.S. Coast Guard to enact further safety measures for small passenger vessels.

Early on the morning of September 2, 2019, 33 passengers and one crew member died when the boat caught fire and sank just off the coast of Santa Cruz Island. The captain and four other crew members jumped overboard and survived.

"For the NTSB, this was the worst marine disaster that the NTSB has investigated since it was established in 1967. El Faro was the second. The worst," Homendy said at a press conference in Santa Barbara on Monday.

Homendy says the NTSB issued several safety recommendations in its final report on the Conception incident. She says that while the Coast Guard has taken action on some of the recommendations, more needs to be done.

"Why we're here today is what the Coast Guard has not done and what the NTSB has been demanding for over 20 years, and that is issuance of a regulation that requires owners of US-flagged passenger vessels to implement a safety management system or SMS," Homendy said.

She explained that SMS establishes rules and procedures for safe operations, defines crew members' responsibilities, and requires training among other things.

WATCH: Full press conference with NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy

The NTSB first issued an SMS recommendation to the Coast Guard in 2003 after a deadly passenger ferry accident in New York. At the time, the Coast Guard said it didn't have the authority to issue such regulations. In 2010, Congress granted the Coast Guard the authority to do so.

In 2013, Homendy says the Coast Guard informed the NTSB that the agency was initiating a rulemaking to require SMS, and in 2021, the Coast Guard issued a notice asking for community input but Homendy says the NTSB has since heard nothing.

Homendy also sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security and Coast Guard Headquarters urging that action be taken.

The exact cause of the fire remains undetermined, but Homendy said it was believed to have started either in a trash can or from lithium-ion batteries that were being charged.

Last year, the boat's captain, Jerry Boylan , was convicted of one count of misconduct or neglect of ship officer, also known as "seaman's manslaughter." He was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay $32,178.82 to the families of three of the victims.