British technology magnate Mike Lynch’s co-defendant in a US fraud trial died in a car crash, days before the businessman disappeared after his yacht sank off the coast of Sicily.

Stephen Chamberlain, Autonomy’s former vice president of finance along with CEO Lynch, was hit by a car while running on Saturday, said his lawyer Gary Lincenberg.

Less than 48 hours later, Mr Lynch was among six tourists missing after a luxury yacht sank in a tornado off the coast of Sicily early Monday.

In a statement, Mr Lincenberg said: “Our dear client and friend Steve Chamberlain was fatally struck by a car while jogging on Saturday.

“He was a courageous man of unparalleled integrity. We miss him deeply. Steve successfully fought to clear his good name in court earlier this year and his good name now lives on through his wonderful family.

A former crew member of the Bayesian said the people working on the boat when it sank in the early hours of Monday were “well known and well liked”.

The sailor, who worked on the boat several years ago, told Sky News it was a “highly respected and well-known boat in the industry, particularly in the Mediterranean and Caribbean.”

He said: “The weather around Sicily can be somewhat unpredictable, but this appears to have been an unusually large storm.

“The missing crew members are known and loved throughout the industry.

“We have been nervously waiting for news since this morning. My thoughts are with everyone involved at this terrible moment.”

Some of the guests on board Mike Lynch’s yacht during the sinking were reportedly members of his legal team – they had been invited to celebrate the tech magnate’s recent acquittal.

The 59-year-old’s superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily in the early hours of Monday morning with 22 people – ten crew members and twelve guests – on board.

Mike and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah are among six people still missing, with one death confirmed and 15 people rescued.

According to the Telegraph, Lynch invited his legal team from Clifford Chance to celebrate his victory in court. In the case, he was acquitted of all fraud charges. He was accused of inflating the value of his company after it was sold to US technology giant Hewlett-Packard (HP).

The father of one of the survivors of the tragedy said she was a lawyer from Clifford Chance who saw the trip as a reason to celebrate.

He told the newspaper: “I texted my daughter and she didn’t give me any news about missing people or rescues. She just told me there were dead people and she and her partner were alive.”

The Marine Accident Investigation Branch said four of its inspectors had been dispatched to Palermo following the sinking of the Bayes yacht.

The PA news agency has learned that the team will initially carry out a basic assessment of the crime scene but will not launch an investigation at this stage.

A man who witnessed the sinking of Mike Lynch’s superyacht said they must have been “caught off guard” by the approaching storm.

“It disappeared at around 4:30 a.m. A beautiful ship on which a party had been taking place. A normal, happy day of vacation at sea turned into a tragedy,” a witness told the Italian news agency ANSA.

He continued: “The ship was not far from the port. It would not have cost much to raise the anchor and head for the port. Apparently they were surprised by the sudden storm and could not prevent the sinking.”

Global warming may have contributed to the unusual storm that sank a British-flagged luxury yacht off the coast of Sicily on Monday, an Italian climatologist said.

Luca Mercalli, president of the Italian Meteorological Society, said the incident that led to the tragedy could have been a waterspout, essentially a tornado over water, or a downburst, a more common phenomenon in which no air rotation is involved.

“We don’t know what it was because it all happened in the dark in the early hours of the morning. That’s why we don’t have any photos,” he said.

In Italy, waterspouts can bring wind speeds of up to 200 kilometers per hour, while downslope winds can generate gusts of more than 250 kilometers per hour. Statistics show that downslope winds are becoming more frequent across the country, which Mercalli says could be linked to global warming.

After weeks of scorching heat, Italy has been hit by storms and heavy rains in recent days.

“The sea surface temperature around Sicily was about 30 degrees Celsius, almost 3 degrees more than normal. This creates a huge source of energy that contributes to these storms,” ​​Mercalli said. “So we can’t say that this is all due to climate change, but we can say that it has a magnifying effect.”

In a similarly violent storm in May last year, four people died when their tourist boat sank on Lake Maggiore in northern Italy.

The country’s diverse geology makes it prone to flooding and landslides, and its bordering a rapidly warming sea makes it vulnerable to increasingly violent storms.

“Climate-related disasters will become more frequent and severe in Italy,” said Mercalli.

The search and rescue operation for the missing people after a yacht sank off the coast of Sicily will continue throughout the night, authorities said.

The general director of the Sicilian Civil Protection Agency, Salvatore Cocina, told BBC Cocina that the operation would last all night as a specialised speleological search and rescue diving team had arrived from Rome.

It is hoped that “results will be achieved” tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest.

Mike Lynch’s daughter is among those missing after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of Sicily, local authorities said.

Salvatore Cocina, director general of the Sicilian Civil Protection Agency, told the BBC that 18-year-old Hannah Lynch had been reported missing along with her father and the yacht’s cook, Ricardo Thomas.

He added that the rescue operation would continue throughout the night.

The Italian authorities said it made “no sense” that they had not found more missing people despite searching all day.

A spokesman for the Sicilian civil protection agency told the BBC they “must be there (in the boat).”

“We searched all day with helicopters and boats and found nothing. There was no point in doing that, under these conditions we should have found something by now,” added Mr Venuto.

A spokesman for the Italian fire service had previously told The Times that it was unlikely that any more survivors would be found.