House Holds Hearing on ‘Conception’ and Other Maritime Disasters

At a House hearing on Thursday, at which Santa Barbara Rep. Salud Carbajal held the Coast Guard’s feet to a very mild fire, the Conception and a number of other maritime disasters were part of a discussion on preventing boating deaths and increasing maritime safety. Acting chair, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) said the Coast Guard may have made critical mistakes, citing the disconnect between its rules and NTSB findings in a Los Angeles Times article this week. The National Transportation Safety Board had pointed to poor preventive maintenance and lax fire prevention and crew training in “a string of maritime casualties,” he said, and had a history of taking action following a tragedy, rather than actively updating its regulations. 

Among the other incidents described at the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing were the cargo ship El Faro, in which 33 crew died when its captain steamed into the path of a hurricane; the sinking of a “duck boat” in Missouri that killed 17; and sexual assaults on cruise ships.

After first acknowledging the many Coast Guard members in his district and thanking the service for its search-and-rescue work after the Conception caught fire and sank, killing 34 people on September 2, Carbajal used his five minutes to quiz Coast Guard Rear Admiral Richard Timme. Carbajal demanded to know why the maritime service’s track record was so poor in implementing NTSB recommendations. “Over the years, we’ve seen tragedy after tragedy after tragedy,” Carbajal said, in which NTSB advocacy for regular inspections, crew training, and other needs were ignored.