More bodies found in tech entrepreneur’s family yacht
Rescue workers used an underwater drone to search for bodies in a sunken yacht off the coast of Italy.
The body of British technology entrepreneur Mike Lynch was recovered Thursday from his family’s superyacht, which sank off the coast of Italy after being caught in a sudden and violent storm, authorities said.
After four bodies were recovered from the wreckage on Wednesday, Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah remains the only missing person, Massimo Mariani of the Italian Interior Ministry told Reuters. Her body may have been washed out to sea, Mariani said.
It may take longer for divers to find her body as access to the sunken vessel is difficult at a depth of more than 50 metres, said Luca Cari, a fire service spokesman. Rescue workers faced a difficult task as they had to search the extremely deep and narrow areas around the boat.
Giovanni Costantino, CEO of Italian shipbuilder Perini, which built the vessel in 2008, told Reuters on Thursday: “The boat was affected by a series of indescribable, unacceptable faults.”
He said the crew made an “incredible mistake” by not preparing for the storm, even though it had been previously announced in a ship’s weather forecast. “This is a mistake that cries out for vengeance,” he said.
Lynch, 59, was best known as co-founder of Britain’s largest enterprise software company Autonomy, which was sold to Hewlett-Packard in 2011. He had invited his friends onto the yacht to celebrate his acquittal in June of fraud charges related to the sale of Autonomy.
The Bayesian, a 184-foot British-registered sailboat, sank just before sunrise on Monday off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo, where it was anchored as a strong storm swept through the area. Of the 22 passengers and crew on board, 15, including Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, were pulled from the water on Monday and several were hospitalized. Divers then recovered the body of Ricardo Thomas, the yacht’s cook, near the vessel.
Who were among the missing?
An extensive search ensued for six missing people: Lynch and his daughter, Judy, and Jonathan Bloomer, a chairman of Morgan Stanley International, and Clifford Chance attorney Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda Morvillo.
Jonathan Bloomer served as a character witness in Lynch’s fraud trial, and U.S. citizen Chris Morvillo was part of the team representing Lynch.
Hannah, the younger of Lynch’s two daughters, was preparing to study English literature at Oxford University, according to the Sunday Times.
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Investigations into the tragedy launched
The local prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into the disaster and will hold a press conference on Saturday.
Costantino said there were no errors in the design or planning of the ship. “It sank because it took on water. Investigators will say where from,” he said.
The vessel, owned by Lynch’s wife Bacares, was built to international maritime standards and commercially certified by the UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Agency, according to Matthew Schanck, chairman of the Maritime Search and Rescue Council, and underwent a second refit in 2020.
Experts said that a waterspout – a tornado over water that can reach speeds of up to 190 km/h and formed during the storm – was a possible cause of the ship’s sinking. The weight of the ship’s mast, one of the largest in the world, was also responsible.
Contributor: Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY; Reuters
