Italian investigators are trying to determine why the yacht Bayesian sank so quickly. The bodies of missing people have been found while witnesses and experts speculate on the fate of the vessel, which was damaged by a localised storm off the coast of Sicily.
The local coastguard said on Wednesday that four people had been pulled to the surface, but no statement has been made about their identification. A fifth body was spotted on the yacht but had not yet been recovered, an Italian government spokesman said.
Authorities said six people were likely trapped and dead inside the Bayesian yacht when a tornado struck it near Porticello, Sicily, on Monday. The Coast Guard said the operation to find the remaining two missing people would resume Thursday morning. Challenging the search operation is the “narrowness of space” inside the sunken yacht and the “presence of many objects,” the agency said.
Authorities are meanwhile investigating exactly how the luxury yacht sank – and why it sank so quickly – in the early hours of Monday morning, with the captain and other survivors answering questions from local prosecutors, according to Italian news agency ANSA.
Britain’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch said it was also looking into the incident, with questions being raised about the extensiveness of the yacht’s mast and the condition of the hull. Coast guard spokesman Vincenzo Zagarola told Bloomberg News on Wednesday:
“Right now there is no evidence that the mast has been snapped. We can also say that, so far, there is no evidence that the hull has been broken. But we don’t have a clear idea yet of the full damage.”
Search is still on
Crews assisted by warships, remotely operated underwater vehicles and helicopters have been searching for the missing passengers since Monday. Six guests, including British technology entrepreneur Mike Lynch, his wife Angela Bacares and nine crew members have been rescued. The body of Recaldo Thomas, the ship’s chef, was found shortly after the Bayesian sank.
On Tuesday, authorities in Sicily identified Lynch and his daughter Hannah, Bloomer and his wife Judy, and Clifford Chance partner Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda as the missing passengers.
Tragic celebration
Lynch, 59, and his family were celebrating his recent acquittal on charges of defrauding a small group of councillors when a severe storm hit. The charges stemmed from Lynch’s sale of software company Autonomy to Hewlett Packard in 2011. The Silicon Valley giant accused Lynch of accounting errors. He spent years trying to clear his name in court and rebuild his reputation as one of Europe’s most successful entrepreneurs.
Just over two months before the yacht accident, a jury in San Francisco found Lynch not guilty on criminal charges that he defrauded HP and caused it to overpay for his company. He is still fighting HP in a civil trial in London, where a British judge found him liable for creating the illusion that the company was much bigger and more successful than it actually was.
Rescuers are having difficulty accessing the yacht, which is at a depth of 48 metres, citing the depth and position of the vessel’s hull.
Karsten Borner, 69, the captain of a nearby sailboat that was the first to assist it on Monday, said:
“I have never seen a vessel of this size go down so quickly. Within a few minutes, there was nothing left.”
Rescuers are proceeding on the assumption that the vessel sank quickly after being hit by a water tornado. The fact that other vessels in the vicinity, such as Borner’s small boat, did not sink indicates the localised nature of the incident.
