THE US COAST GUARD is being sued for wrongful death by the families of the 34 people, mainly scuba-divers, who died in the Conception liveaboard fire off Santa Cruz Island, California in 2019.
The 48-page civil lawsuit, filed on 1 September almost exactly two years after the fatal incident, blames the Coast Guard, the regulatory agency responsible for certifying such vessels in the USA, for allowing the dive-boat to operate with electrical and safety systems that it says failed to meet its own standards.