YACHT TRAGEDY
Bayesian search called off overnight after 5 bodies found including ‘Mike Lynch & daughter Hannah’ as one still missing
Divers had used a robot to search the wreck
THE Bayesian yacht search has been called off overnight after five bodies, including those said to be Mike Lynch and his teen daughter, were found.
Divers have been scouring the wreckage off the coast of Sicily for days, with one trapped body not yet recovered and another person still missing.
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The search operation in Porticello, called off on Wednesday evening, will resume on Thursday, the head of Sicily's civil protection agency said.
The eight divers from across Italy have so far found five bodies inside the vessel - with one found late on Wednesday yet to be recovered.
Sicily’s civil protection chief Salvo Cocina initially told The Telegraph the first two bodies found belonged to British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, 59, and his daughter Hannah, 18.
The body of Canadian-Antiguan chef, Recaldo Thomas, was found in the open water soon after the disaster on Monday and a seventh person remains missing.
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The unaccounted for passengers include Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy, and Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda.
It comes as...
- The bodies of Mike Lynch & his daughter Hannah, 18, were believed to be recovered from the sunken superyacht
- Another two bodies were found in the search for the missing passengers
- Lynch's shell-shocked wife revealed how she was awoken by a 'tilt' as the yacht sank
- The captain of the Bayesian broke his silence on the horror storm and was quizzed by cops for over two hours
- Experts believe the yacht's 'tallest mast in the world' may have contributed to the disaster after a freak ‘Black Swan’ weather event struck
- Pictures showed the tiny raft that saved up to 15 people
- Frantic text messages from the survivors revealed the chaos
Bayesian superyacht was sunk by freak ‘Black Swan’ water tornado as expert says ‘we’ve never faced anything like this’
The ultra-luxurious yacht plunged beneath waves in the early hours of Monday after being hammered by a rare "Black Swan" waterspout - a freak twister-like event.
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Sleeping party guests and crew were suddenly awoken and forced to flee for their lives - with some 15 of the 22 onboard managing to escape.
Lynch's wife - Angela Bacares, 57 - was one of those who managed to escape in a tiny life raft as the vessel capsized and was dragged down in a storm.
Italian rescue crews launched a desperate three-day search - with hopes there could be a miracle for those trapped on board if they were surviving in air pockets.
The first two bodies found yesterday were discovered trapped by mattresses inside a cabin, reports La Repubblica.
Ambulances were seen driving away from the harbour after the remains were pulled up by divers.
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Sicily civil protection director-general Cocina told The Telegraph after the bodies were found that two of them were Mr Lynch and Hannah.
He said: “On behalf of myself and my colleagues, I would like to express my deepest sympathy to the families of the victims and express our condolences to them at this difficult time.”
Around 50 emergency workers are still helping with the search.
The UK's Marine Accident Investigation Branch has now opened up its own investigation into the sinking of the Bayesian.
Out of 12 passengers and 10 crew, 15 were rescued from the water including a one-year-old British girl and her mum.
The Italian coastguard vowed not to give up until it finds all of those feared dead inside the sunken yacht.
Captain of the doomed yacht James Cutfield, 51, was grilled by cops for over two hours after divers discovered the boat's keel was raised - a structural backbone of the boat which could have affected its stability during the storm.
Police, who have been interviewing survivors from the tragedy, questioned the captain for several hours about the disaster, Giornale Di Sicilia reported.
The desperate search will enter its fourth day on Thursday with footage this week showing firefighters, helicopters, police and divers scouring the sea.
Rescuers deployed an underwater drone robot to assist in the search mission with pictures showing divers operating it from a boat on the surface.
It can remain underwater for up to seven hours at a depth of 300m, recording helpful images and video.
Divers finally reached the "master cabin" late on Wednesday morning - possibly where the captain stayed - according to Italian outlet Giornale Di Sicilia.
Later reports said they had made it to the area near the passenger cabins, where the coastguard believed the six tourists were trapped for several days.
Although the 184ft yacht is lying "practically intact" on its side at the bottom of the sea, rescuers have been struggling to get inside.
Some 164ft down, the rotating team of divers face a time crunch as they only have 10 minutes to search each time they go down.
Diver Marco Tilotta also said there was a "world of objects" including furniture and debris obstructing the narrow stairs in front of the cabins in the wreck.
Luca Cari, head of the local Fire Brigade, explained: "They can stay underwater for a maximum of 12 minutes, two of which are needed to go up and down.
"So the real time to be able to carry out the search is 10 minutes per dive."
Who is Mike Lynch?
FORMER billionaire entrepreneur Mike Lynch is believed found dead after a £14m luxury yacht capsized in a tornado off the coast of Sicily Monday morning.
The tech tycoon, dubbed "Britain's Bill Gates", was one of the 22 people sailing onboard the £166,000 a week vessel.
Lynch, 59, was a serial entrepreneur having founded and sold tech and software companies with one of his biggest being Autonomy Corporation.
He was also been involved in Invoke Capital and cybersecurity company Darktrace.
As well as being awarded an OBE for his services to enterprise in 2006.
Born in Ilford, Lynch had a firefighter father from County Cork and a nurse mother from County Tipperary.
Away from work, Mike was happily married to wife Angela Bacares and the pair had two children together.
Angela is among those who have been rescued on the superyacht.
In 2023, the Sunday Times rich list set the couple's value at £852m.
But Mike was extradited to the US on fraud charges back in 2023 with a judge setting his bail at £79m.
Just weeks ago, Lynch was acquitted of criminal charges by a jury in San Francisco after a 12-year legal battle over the $11bn sale of his firm, Autonomy, to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
The doomed yacht, named Bayesian, is also said to be owned by the Lynch family.
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The boat capsized at around 5am local time on Monday when the mast was hit by the waterspout off the coast of Sicily during extreme weather, witnesses have said.
Torrential rain and wind battered much of the Porticello port in Palermo overnight on Sunday - striking the superyacht with swirling columns of air that formed waterspouts.
Witnesses claimed a twister snapped the 246ft boat mast - the world's second tallest - clean in half.
Others told Italian outlet Ansa that the anchor was down when the storm hit on Monday morning, causing the boat to lose its balance.
It comes as maritime experts said the yacht may have been sunk by a freak "Black Swan" waterspout which would have appeared without warning.
Matthew Schanck, chairman of the Maritime Search and Rescue Council, told The Times: "Looking at the extreme weather, if it was a waterspout, which it appears to be, it's what I would class as like a black swan event.
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"And if the waterspout ends up dumping a load of that water on board the vessel, that’s going to cause significant damage."
Extremely rare and unpredictable weather patterns that have severe impacts - like this waterspout - are known as "black swan events".
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