All six crew members aboard the commercial diving vessel Conception were asleep at the time fire broke out aboard the 75-foot commercial diving vessel Sept. 2. One crew member and all 33 passengers perished when the ship sank in Platts Harbor off Santa Cruz Island.
Those stark facts are in the preliminary report issued yesterday by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on the incident, which occurred on the last night of a three-day diving trip to the Channel Islands.