Topic: Maritime Accidents and Incidents
Five bodies have been discovered in the search for people missing after the sinking of a superyacht in Italy.
Three bodies were brought ashore on Wednesday, local time, with authorities saying the other two remained on the yacht.
It remains unclear who has been found, with rescuers searching for British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, his lawyer and four other people.
Divers have discovered five bodies during a search for six missing people following the sinking of a superyacht off Sicily.
Six people have now been killed in the incident with authorities still searching for one other passenger who remains missing.
It was not immediately clear who had been found.
The missing include UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter, and the chairman of Morgan Stanley International Jonathan Bloomer.
The other missing passengers were Mr Bloomer's wife Judy, Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda Morvillo.
Rescuers transport a green body bag to shore on Wednesday. ( Reuters: Louiza Vradi )
Three body-bags were brought to shore by Italian search and rescue personnel on Wednesday, local time.
The Sicily civil protection agency said the other two bodies remain on the wreckage.
The British-flagged Bayesian, a 56-metre-long superyacht, was carrying 22 people and was anchored off the port of Porticello, near Palermo, when it capsized during a fierce storm on Monday.
Fifteen people survived.
The body of the onboard chef, Canadian-Antiguan national Recaldo Thomas, was found near the wreck hours after the disaster.
The Italian fire department said the inspection of the wreck, lying sideways at a depth of around 50 metres, was a "long and complex" operation.
The coast guard has been questioning survivors, including the captain of the Bayesian, and passengers on the yacht that was moored next to it who witnessed the ship going down, judicial sources told Reuters said.
No one is under investigation at the moment, the sources added.
Experts have been at a loss to explain how a large luxury vessel, presumed to have top-class fittings and safety features, could have sunk within minutes, as recounted by witnesses.
The yacht anchored next to it was unharmed by the tempest.
The Bayesian, which was owned by Mike Lynch's wife, was built by Italian shipbuilder Perini in 2008 and last refitted in 2020.
It had the world's tallest aluminium mast, measuring 72 metres, according to its makers.
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Hannah Lynch, the 18-year-old daughter of the British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, was on board a yacht that was hit by a storm and went down in the early hours on Monday.
By Emma Bubola and Elisabetta Povoledo
Emma Bubola reported from Porticello, Italy, and Elisabetta Povoledo from Pallanza, Italy.
For nearly a week after a violent storm sent a luxury yacht to the bottom of the sea off the coast of Sicily, Italian scuba divers plunged deep underwater, moving through ropes and fallen objects inside the yacht in a desperate search for the six people missing.
On Friday, the recovery of the body of Hannah Lynch, 18, put an end to the wrenching search and to the slim hopes that any of the missing people might have survived.
Ms. Lynch, the daughter of the British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, who also died in the yacht’s sinking, was the last person to be formally unaccounted for since Monday after tragedy struck a group that had been celebrating her father’s acquittal in a high-profile fraud case.
There were 10 crew members and 12 passengers on board the 180-foot vessel, the Bayesian, when it was hit by a storm and went down about 4.30 a.m. on Monday, the boat’s management company said on Friday.
Fifteen survived.
The body of the ship’s cook, Recaldo Thomas, was found on Monday, a few hours after a downpour hit the northwestern coast of Sicily, near the port of Porticello, where the yacht had been anchored.
But it took several days to recover the bodies of the six passengers who were apparently trapped inside the yacht: Mr. Lynch and Ms. Lynch; Jonathan Bloomer, the chairman of Morgan Stanley International; his wife, Judy Bloomer; Christopher J. Morvillo, a lawyer at Clifford Chance; and his wife, Neda Morvillo.
On Friday, a round of applause could be heard from the firefighter’s tent set up on the dock in Porticello after the last body was pulled out in what the corps described as a “complex” search operation at a depth of about 165 feet. The firefighters said they had made 123 immersions into the sea to try to retrieve the bodies.
The body bag was then loaded onto an ambulance. A local man had left a small wooden cross on the rocks in front of the dock where the bodies were brought ashore.
Mr. Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, was among those who managed to reach the safety of a raft. They were rescued by a sailing schooner that had been bobbing about 150 yards from the yacht.
In a statement, the family thanked the search teams and said that it was enduring a “time of unspeakable grief.”
“The Lynch family is devastated, in shock and is being comforted and supported by family and friends,” the statement added.
As prosecutors from the nearby city of Termini Imerese began conducting interviews with the survivors and possible witnesses, the crew and passengers of the Bayesian have been confined to a local hotel, where the news media have been denied access.
Salvatore Cocina, the head of Sicily’s civil protection agency, said on Thursday that the survivors had turned down the psychological assistance his department had offered to them.
In Porticello, the sprawling presence of rescue services made a haunting backdrop for an otherwise tranquil port town. People sunbathed and ate ricotta-filled pastries, and stores selling sandals and dried fruit opened as normal, while coast guard and firefighting vessels came and went from the shore, taking scuba divers out to the shipwreck.
Other reminders of the tragedy could be seen along the coast, among palm trees and ice cream shops, with groups of onlookers staring out at the sea, now tranquil and flat.
Local and national news organizations have complained that prosecutors have not issued a statement or held a news conference. Prosecutors may shed more light on the yacht’s sinking when they hold a news conference on Saturday.
The marine accident investigation branch of the British transportation ministry was also looking into the shipwreck of the vessel, which was registered in Britain.
One of the major questions is what caused the boat to sink: Was it the fault of the boat maker, of the crew or of a powerful act of nature — or some combination of the three? None of those who were onboard the Bayesian have spoken publicly.
The luxury yacht, built by the Italian manufacturer Perini Navi and launched in 2008, had the second-tallest aluminum mast in the world, according to its makers.
Giovanni Costantino, the chief executive of the Italian Sea Group, which in 2022 bought Perini Navi, has been assertive in defending the design and construction of the yacht, saying that the Bayesian would be “unsinkable” if the proper procedures were followed.
But yacht design experts have cautioned that the lesson of the Titanic, the ocean liner that sank on its 1912 maiden voyage, showed that no vessel, no matter how robust, was worthy of that label.
Nautilus International, a maritime-focused labor union, criticized any implication that the crew had been at fault, especially at this stage. In a statement , the union’s general secretary, Mark Dickinson, said, “Experience tells us that maritime tragedies are always the result of multiple, interconnected factors,” and he urged people to refrain from drawing any conclusions until a thorough investigation had been carried out.
The investigation into the causes will take months, prosecutors said.
Michael J. de la Merced contributed reporting.
Emma Bubola is a Times reporter based in Rome. More about Emma Bubola
Elisabetta Povoledo is a reporter based in Rome, covering Italy, the Vatican and the culture of the region. She has been a journalist for 35 years. More about Elisabetta Povoledo
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When the Bayesian sank around 4 a.m. on Aug. 19, the waters in its area, about half a mile off the Sicilian port of Porticello, were transformed by an extremely sudden and violent storm, according ...
The body of a man recovered near the Bayesian yacht on Monday was swiftly reported to be that of Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian-Antiguan chef who was working on the boat. His friends have been paying ...
As bodies were recovered, the authorities and experts wondered how a $40 million, stable and secure vessel could have sunk so quickly. By Emma Bubola and Michael J. de la Merced Emma Bubola ...
The yacht anchored next to it was unharmed by the tempest. The Bayesian, which was owned by Mike Lynch's wife, was built by Italian shipbuilder Perini in 2008 and last refitted in 2020.
One man has died and six people are missing after a luxury yacht sank in freak weather conditions off the coast of Sicily. The 56m British-flagged Bayesian was carrying 22 people - 12 passengers ...
Hannah Lynch, the 18-year-old daughter of the British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, was on board a yacht that was hit by a storm and went down in the early hours on Monday.
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter are among the six people missing after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of the Italian island of Sicily in the early hours of Monday ...