vmargineanu/iStock(SANTA BARBARA, Calif.) — Search crews have recovered the bodies of 33 people who died when a chartered dive-boat caught and sank early Monday off the coast of Santa Barbara, officials said.
One passenger believed to have perished in the disaster remains missing, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department said Wednesday morning.
The sheriff’s department said in a statement that 13 bodies were recovered Tuesday, a day after 20 bodies were pulled from the Pacific Ocean floor.
“They have not yet been identified by the coroner, but our search shows that we have one remains outstanding,” the statement reads. “The recovery continues for one outstanding human remains.”
As the search-and-recovery mission continued near the Channel Islands, about a mile off the coast of Santa Barbara, the National Transportation Safety Board has launched an investigation into what caused the calamity.
“I am 100 percent confident that our investigators will determine the cause of this fire, why it occurred, how it occurred and what is needed to prevent it from happening again, absolutely,” Jennifer Homendy, a member of the NTSB, said at a news conference Tuesday evening.
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