MV Conception - dive boat fire. Suggestions for improved diving boat standards

This story has been all over the news. As a scuba diver my heart goes out to those lost. Tragically, both exits were blocked by fire and all passengers were lost (crew on top deck survived). Everything wrong about this vessel, and similar poorly maintained diving/tourist vessels should be heavily scrutinized.

After the fire

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Ref: Sinking of MV Conception - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinking_of_MV_Conception

Inadequate fire detection/alarms, extinguishing and escape hatches are an obvious culprit. The diving community (ScubaBoard.com) is really digging into this event and I would not be surprised if new laws are passed to demand minimum safety standards for vessels like this.

 

These standards exist for many years for all types and sizes of boats, are periodically improved and have proven to be very effective. Perhaps what needs to be done is to prevent unprofessional designers / cosntructors from continuing in the business and ask the competent Administration to act accordingly.

 

The top picture is of a different vessel , here is a picture from New York Times site of the vessel in question.
What Was It Like Aboard the Conception? https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/04/us/conception-boat-scuba-divers.html

< attached photo removed to err on the side of caution as it may fall under New York Times copyright: Copyright notice https://help.nytimes.com/hc/en-us/articles/115014792127-Copyright-notice >

 

They do indeed, and every new vessel must comply with said standards of compliance for the appropriate duty of operation.

This makes no sense.
The administration and classification society inspects the design plans submitted for compliance with the standards. The surveyors also inspect and confirm said standards have been complied with during the build, prior to delivery.
Thus when a vessel leaves the yard, it is fully complaint. There are sufficient independent checks and balances to ensure standards are maintained. This is to prevent precisely what you seem to be alluding to, non-compliance by other parties.

The fault/cause is usually on the operational side in terms of cost cutting - as this increases the risk of an event occurring, whether too few crew, lack of general maintenance, staff that are not trained, etc etc..

I spent 2 months travelling around the Greek Islands Island hopping. The ferries i travelling on were no different. The major routes from inside the superstructure to the main deck, all except 2 were chained shut! And this was on a large RoPax ferry of roughly 120m. This has nothing to do with designers or builders. It is cost cutting by the operators. Safety costs - simple as that.

 

This is a horrible tragedy. I participate in a lot of boating forums and this is the subject of many of them, Speculation about how this happened is rampant. However having done many boating accident investigations, including fires, I suggest we wait for the results of the investigations, which I assure you will be thorough and meticulous. In addition to the USCG investigation, the NTSB has a team on site. These take a while. This is unfortunate for the friends and families who want answers (and rightly so) but it is important that these investigations be done with care and scientific expertise to determine what actually happened. Speculation often leads to wrong conclusions. Call for new standards at this point is extremely premature. But at this point we don't even know how it started. Let the investigators do their jobs.

 

I concur with TANSL, this wasn't a standards or face-value maintenance issue, it was an implementation issue. BTW, the before picture is not of the Conception.

 

It seems Ocean Safari Outdoors had a pic of the ill fated MV Conception online at their boats page, but don't see it there right now, but they still have the URL of the pic online on their website at the time of this posting, as attached below.



Diver Dan's (low price guarantee) has a small less cropped version of the above pic still online at the time of this posting, and the larger below attached aerial of the sister ship MV Vision.

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The number of windows on the MV Vision lower cabin seems to vary on the post #3 and post #7 pictures, maybe this is a port vs. starboard difference, or they do alter the boats every now and then ?

 

( post #3, the pic is gone here now, see moderator note at the post )

NYT, mabe another article: ‘‘ The Conception was operated by Truth Aquatics. On Tuesday morning, its surviving ships, the Vision and the Truth, were docked in Santa Barbara Harbor.’’

Truth Aquatics: Website — Facebook — Twitter — Tripadvisor

 

Truth Aquatics MV Conception as posted on Facebook on August 28, 2019

 

Operator Truth Aquatics Specifications MV Conception

 

Do not let your animosity prevent you from being objective. When a vessel catches fire, as in the boat we are talking about, someone has stopped fulfilling their task.

This is a nonsense. What does an operator have to do with poorly placed insulation or with a combustible material used in too much quantity?.
Let's be objective, Mr. Ad Hoc, and try to eliminate our passions from our comments. Our ego, better leave it at home.

 

Precisely...
You need to read a book about English comprehension...as yours is severely lacking on so many levels it is not funny anymore.
Google Translate not working day..???..........geesssss

EDIT
Oh let me guess...you're going post several times, say you know nothing but post anyway..and then when questioned...you remove all your posts, as you have nothing to add. Good god...grow up!

 

It is not honest to modify the posts of others. Reflect, perhaps with humility you would be more credible. And, yes, Google translator is a great help for me. I don't have to be ashamed of not mastering a language that isn't mine. And, yes, I delete some of my posts when I see that they no longer add anything positive to the thread in which I published them. Should I be ashamed of it? Come on, Ad Hoc, you are supposed to have more category so you don't have to resort to these child disqualifications. People can perfectly value my professionalism, through what I say in this forum, and how I say it, without the need for your disqualifications.
Be water, my friend.

 

Thanks for the updated image link! I've corrected my image link on my original post.