PORTICLLO, Sicily (AP) — British Tech magnate Mike Lynch and five other people were missing after their luxury superyacht sank during a freak storm off Sicily early Monday morning, Italian civil protection and authorities said. Lynch’s wife and 14 other people survived.

Lynch, the acquitted in June in a major U.S. fraud trial, was among six people who remain missing after their chartered sailboat sank off Porticello, near Palermo, sometime after 4 a.m. An overwater tornado, known as a waterspout, had struck the area during the night, said Salvo Cocina of the Sicilian Civil Protection Agency.

One body was recovered and police divers spent the whole day trying to reach the hull of the ship, which was anchored at 50 metres off Porticello, rescuers said. They returned to the site after 10pm to check whether it would be possible to search all night as weather conditions were expected to worsen, fire service spokesman Luca Cari said.

The ship had a crew of 10 and 12 passengers, the Italian coast guard said. A sudden violent storm hit the area overnight and a waterspout hit exactly where the 56-meter-long British-flagged Bayesian was anchored.

“They were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Cocina said, pointing out that another large ship nearby, the Sir Robert Baden Powell, was not as badly damaged and helped rescue the 15 survivors – including Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares.

The Bayesian was famous for its 75-metre mast – one of the world’s tallest aluminium masts, which was illuminated at night just hours before it sank. It was advertised for rent on online charter sites for up to 195,000 euros (about $215,000) a week.

One of the survivors, Charlotte Golunski, said she briefly lost her 1-year-old daughter Sofia in the water but was able to hold her above the waves until a lifeboat was inflated and they were both taken to safety, Italian news agency ANSA reported. The father, identified by ANSA as James Emslie, also survived, Cocina said.

Karsten Borner, the captain of the Sir Robert Baden Powell, said he noticed the Bayesian nearby during the storm, but when the storm calmed he saw a red flare and realized the ship had simply disappeared, ANSA and the Giornale di Sicilia newspaper reported. Borner said he and a crew member boarded their dinghy and found a lifeboat with 15 people, some of them injured. They then took them on board and alerted the coast guard.

Eight of those rescued were taken to hospital and the others to a hotel. One body, believed to be the cook, was found near the wreck, but six others were missing and believed to be in the hull, said Cari, the fire service spokesman. Helicopters and rescue boats from the coast guard, fire service and civil protection were involved in the rescue operation, which was visible from the shore.

Fisherman Fabio Cefalù said he saw a flare from the shore at around 4:30 a.m. and immediately headed for it. However, by the time he got there, the Bayesian had already sunk. Only cushions, wood and other items from the superyacht were floating in the water.

“But apart from that, we haven’t found anyone,” he said hours later from the port. He said he immediately alerted the coast guard and stayed on site for three hours, but found no survivors. “I think they’re all inside, all the missing people.”

He said he got up early to check the weather and see if he could go fishing and suspected that a sudden waterspout had hit the yacht.

“It could be that the mast broke or the anchor at the bow pulled on it, I don’t know,” he said.

Cocina said crew and passengers came from a variety of countries: In addition to Britain and the United States, passengers and crew came from Antigua, France, Germany, Ireland, Myanmar, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Spain, he said.

The UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch is sending a team of four inspectors to Italy to make a preliminary assessment. The Foreign Office said it was “providing consular assistance to a number of British nationals and their families.”

Dutch Foreign Ministry spokesman Casper Soetekouw said the only Dutch citizen on board, a man, had been rescued and was not in danger of dying.

Lynch, once hailed as Britain’s king of technology, was acquitted in June of fraud and conspiracy charges related to Hewlett Packard’s $11 billion acquisition of his company, Autonomy Corp.

The acquittals were preceded by an eleven-week criminal trial in San Francisco in which the story of HP’s Acquisition 2011 from Autonomy, an enterprise software company founded by Lynch.

The Allegations of fraud represented a dramatic turnaround in the fortunes of an entrepreneur once dubbed the Bill Gates of Britain – a title he seemed to live up to when he netted $800 million from the sale of Autonomy.

The acquittal vindicated Lynch, who had vehemently denied any wrongdoing and portrayed HP as a technological wreck.

“I look forward to returning to the UK and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovation in my field,” Lynch said in a statement released after the ruling.

Built in 2008 by Italian company Perini Navi, the yacht accommodates 12 passengers in four double cabins, one triple cabin and the master suite, as well as crew accommodation, according to Charter World and Yacht Charters.

The ship, previously named Salute when it sailed under the Dutch flag, featured a sleek, minimalist interior in light wood with Japanese accents, designed by French designer Remi Tessier, according to descriptions and photos on the charter pages.

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Winfield reported from Rome. AP writers Danica Kirka and Sylvia Hui contributed from London.

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This story has been corrected to clarify that the fisherman’s name is Fabio Cefalù and not Francesco Cefalu’.