Abstract: At approximately 3:00 a.m. on October 30, 2001, Employee #1 and a coworker, both U.S. Customs Service Inspectors, boarded the scrap metal cargo ship Sakura, which was docked at Bayou Steels in LaPlace, LA, to perform a routine inspection of the ship. Employee #1, the coworker, the captain of the ship, and a ship's mate opened a hatch that led down into the scrap metal cargo area. Employee #1 entered the hold while the others waited on deck. After a few minutes, they yelled to Employee #1 but received no answer. The ship's mate then entered the hold to check on Employee #1, but he, too, did not return or respond to calls. The ship's captain then went in the hold and passed out in sight of the remaining Customs inspector on deck. The second inspector left and started waking up the rest of the crew for help and called the fire department. Employee #1, the ship's mate and the ship's captain all died inside the cargo area. Preliminary autopsies indicated that the three men may have suffocated from lack of oxygen in the hold.