Face of Nation : United States Coast Guard said on Monday night it had located the bodies of 25 people, after a dive boat anchored off the coast of Southern California caught fire and sank.Guard said the authorities had recovered 20 bodies and identified the location of five more.
Those five cannot be recovered due to unsafe conditions under the ship, which had been on a three-day scuba diving excursion to the Channel Islands, northwest of Los Angeles. Kroll said the bodies that had been recovered had injuries consistent with drowning.
Five crew members managed to escape when the fire broke out and were rescued by people on a boat nearby. The Los Angeles sector of the US Coast Guard said earlier that more than 30 people were “in distress” on board the boat.
“A group of crew members has been rescued [ones with minor injuries] and efforts continue to evacuate the remaining passengers,” the Coast Guard tweeted early on Monday.
The vessel, Conception, was operated by Santa Barbara-based Worldwide Diving Adventures, which said on its website it has been operating such expeditions since 1972.
This weekend trip had departed early on Saturday morning with plans to return on Monday evening. The boat was outfitted with dozens of small berths for people to sleep in overnight. It was not immediately clear when divers would be able to search the boat for the missing.
