Page 37 - Escape Hatch News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Passengers asleep down below. tonight family members tonight family members are desperate for information about how crew members escaped while divers perished. gadi schwartz has the details. >> reporter: at 3:00 a.m. off the coast of a california island, a frantic call >> mayday mayday mayday. >> reporter: that mayday coming from a boat fully engulfed in flames >> i can't breathe please >> reporter: over the radio, a man identifying himself as the captain telling the coast guard dozens of passengers were asleep below deck crew members awake on the upper deck jumped overboard to escape the flam...

Vessel that's on fire? they can't get off. >> are they locked inside the boat? can you get back on board and unlock the door so they can get off? >> roger, there's no escape hatch for any of the people on board. >> joining me from california, nbc news correspondent blayne alexander who has been following this throughout. i heard a coast guard captain say today there was a lot of adrenaline and confusion during that and the radio dispatcher was just trying to get information by asking about locked doors. but that there were none. >> correct. that's absolutely right. so certainly a lot of questi...

Submerged so it is under water in 62 feet of water and flipped over. on top of that, it's unstable. so because oflt for crews to go in and get to those remaining victims. we talk about the five people who were able to survive. that is because they happened to be up on deck when the fire broke out. they were able to jump off the boat, make it over to another boat nearby, a good samaritan boat, and make a mayday call. let's listen to a little bit of that call. >> mayday mayday mayday. >> roger are you on board the conception? >> roger are they locked inside the boat? >> roger can you get back on...

Deck jumped overboard to escape the flames and swam to a nearby boat for help while passengers remained trapped. >> can you get back onboard and unlock the boat, unlock the doors so they can get off? >> there's no escape hatch for any of the people onboard. >> reporter: witnesses described hearing explosions during the fire. the charter boat had been outfitted for scuba diving with pressurized tanks as well as propane for cooking onboard. but authorities say it's still too soon to tell how the fire started. the coast guard reporting that so far, they have recovered four bodies while more than ...

The highest part of the boat. it makes perfect sense that they'll be able to initiate the mayday call because, again, that's where the where's going to be and ever -- where the radio's going to be and everything else. the issue and the "conception," the dive boat, is designed -- this is a typical design for what we call a california live-aboards dive boat. you're going to be out for a couple of days and the gear is on the main deck. you're sleeping in the bunk room. there are bunks for everybody down below. and you have a main staircase down, and you have a hatch in the back, an escape hatch i...