NTSB Has Just Issued A Preliminary Report On The South California Dive Boat Fire.
BALDWIN: Breaking News from the California coast where the National Transportation Safety Board has just released its preliminary report on the Labor Day boat fire that killed those 34 people. The report found that the Conception dive boat did not have a crew member on roving overnight watch, which is required by its certificate. Meanwhile, you are looking at live pictures of the Coast Guard actually preparing to finally lift this boat out of the water. The last missing victim was located and recovered from the wreckage just yesterday. CNN Correspondent Stephanie Elam is live in Los Angeles. Also with us Josh Campbell, he is a CNN Law Enforcement Analyst and former FBI Supervisory Special Agent, so great on the investigation. But Stephanie, just first to you here. What did they find?</s>STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the big takeaway from this is just this preliminary report from the NTSB is they're not going to lay out findings, we are not going to tell you much of anything that's hard here yet, but what they do, do is give you an idea of what they have identified so far.</s>ELAM: And the big takeaway so far from this report is the fact that all five crew members who were up top were asleep. That's something we've been trying to narrow down because we know the U.S. Coast Guard has said that part of their Certificate of Inspection, which was up- to-date they said was that there should be a roving nights watch person to rove around the boat and make sure that everything is okay. We also know a sixth crew member is also supposed to be down in the bunk room, and we do know that that person was there and she lost her life in the fire. We learned that both of the exits from the bunk room were engulfed in flames when that one crew member woke up and tried to get to them. The other thing that we've learned here that was interesting, as well is that when they did dive off of the boat, the crew members, when they dove into the water, a couple of them went around to the back, got back on the boat to try to look into the engine room to see if there was something they could do. There was no fire there. That's another interesting thing that we've learned about this boat so far. What this doesn't help us to do, while it does raise I question, "Could somebody have gotten there earlier if they'd seen this spark and had been able to rescue these 34 people?" It doesn't answer and it doesn't give us any more clue as to what could have started this fire in the first place. That part is still not there. And this image that you're seeing here, they are working so slowly to bring this wreckage up because they don't want to lose any information, any evidence that may be there on the bottom of the ocean floor. So they're taking their time to slowly bring up what's left of Conception, get the water out of it, and then take it to an undisclosed location where they can then work on figuring out what may have caused this fire -- Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: Okay, as we look at these pictures, Josh, to Stephanie's point I'm reading part of this letter here from the NTSB, "Crew members did attempt to access the salon and passengers below, unable to use the aft ladder which was on fire." It sounds like they tried to then swim around to the stern, get back on the boat, opening the hatch to the engine room, saw no fire, you know, we know that there were attempts -- As they lift this boat, of all of the things they're going to be looking at, what are the key pieces for investigators?</s>JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: So I think the easiest way to look at this is at the outset to understand that there are two investigations that are essentially underway at the same time. You have the NTSB, which is looking at this from a safety perspective. If you get to the cause of this fire, and that includes interviewing the crew members, which we know as Stephanie was mentioning, some of the information being gleaned there. But there's still information that we don't yet have and we won't have until that vessel is actually surfaced which is underway right now. So NTSB, well, you know, I've worked with them in the past as an FBI agent, they're very methodical. They don't rule things in, they rule things out. They'll go through this boat, you know bow to stern once it's actually surfaced and try to get to that root cause of the fire. Now the second aspect of the investigation that's going on right now, we've been reporting and talking to our sources that the Federal government, Federal officials are currently conducting an investigation, including the Coast Guard, the FBI and the A.T.F., they've done a number of searches looking at the operation of this company to look at whether this company was actually in compliance. Now, the NTSB is a lead right now, but if it turns out that there was neglect here, some kind of negligence on the part of the vessel or those who are on board, you could see some additional, you know, possible criminal charges possibly down the road. It is too early for that yet. We still have to get that vessel up and figure out what was actually the cause.</s>BALDWIN: Just how absolutely awful for these 34 families for this tight-knit dive community in Southern California. You know, we will totally stay on this. Stephanie and Josh, thank you guys, both of you very much on this NTSB report. Coming up next, a strong denial from Benjamin Netanyahu saying Israel did not plant listening devices near the White House. And it may be round three, but tonight Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are debating together for the very first time. What to watch. Next.