Sept. 9 (UPI) — Investigators executed search warrants on the headquarters of a Southern California company that owned a scuba diving boat that caught on fire last week, killing 34 people.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Eric Raney said investigators with the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and other agencies served the warrants before 9 a.m. Sunday at Truth Aquatics’ offices in Santa Barbara and at its two other boats.
The warrants are part of an ongoing investigation into last Monday’s tragedy to determine if any crime was committed, Raney said, describing their execution as “pretty standard.”
“It’s par for the course,” he said.
Conception, a 75-foot commercial diving boat, caught fire early Labor Day with 39 people on board. Five crew members survived after jumping into the water where they were rescued by a “good Samaritan pleasure craft,” the Coast Guard said.
Thirty-three of the 34 missing bodies had been recovered when search operations were suspended over the weekend due to weather, Raney said.
The search for the remaining victim was expected to restart Monday, officials said.
Truth Aquatics owner and operator Glen Fritzler said on the company’s social media pages that they were working with the National Transportation Safety Board, which is overseeing the investigation.
“As a member of the NTSB task force committee, we are prevented from commenting on details of this active investigation,” Fritzler said on Friday. “We are committed to finding accurate answers as quickly as possible.”
