A boat captain who abandoned ship when the dive boat Conception caught fire in 2019, killing 34 people on board, will spend four years in federal prison after being convicted in the criminal case last year.

The captain of a scuba diving boat has been sentenced to four years in prison for criminal negligence nearly five years after 34 people died in a fire aboard his vessel, the Conception, off the California coast.

The Sept. 2, 2019, blaze was the deadliest maritime disaster in recent U.S. history, and prompted changes to maritime regulations, congressional reform and several ongoing lawsuits.

Jerry Nehl Boylan was the captain of the Conception when it caught fire and sank near Santa Cruz Island on Labor Day in 2019, taking all its passengers down with it.

The captain of a dive boat that caught fire and sank off the California coast in 2019, killing 34 people in one of the state's deadliest maritime disasters, was sentenced on Thursday to four years in prison for his conviction on a federal charge of seaman's manslaughter.

The Santa Barbara-based dive boat caught fire and sank while anchored off Santa Cruz Island in 2019. One crew member and 33 passengers were killed.

A Stockton mother who lost three daughters in a Southern California dive boat fire in 2019 expressed relief about the captain's conviction but was disappointed in the sentence length.

A former dive boat captain could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison Thursday on a negligence conviction known as “seaman’s manslaughter” after 34 people were killed in a fire that broke out on his boat in 2019.

The boat caught fire before dawn on the final day of a three-day excursion.

The captain of a dive boat has been jailed for four years over the deaths of 34 people in a fire aboard his vessel five years ago in California. Jerry Boylan, 69, was convicted of one count of "seaman's manslaughter" by a jury last year.

Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 people aboard California scuba dive boat