After five bodies were found on board a luxury yacht that sank in a storm off the coast of Sicily, the search has resumed for the remaining missing person.
The vessel, named the Baysian, sank at about 5am on Monday, leaving six people missing, including tech mogul Mike Lynch.
Salvatore Cocina, head of Sicily’s civil defence, confirmed that only four of the five bodies found on Wednesday had been recovered and that the whereabouts of the missing sixth person remained unknown.
Authorities have not confirmed the identities of the bodies recovered, although local and international media have reported that some have been identified.
Body bags were seen being carried into Porticello port on Wednesday afternoon, and Kosina said work to bring a fifth body to shore was “underway.”
He said the search would resume on Thursday morning and enquiries would be made at the appropriate time, but the first priority was finding the missing people.
Dozens of emergency workers stood by while the body bags were transported back to the port, and one of the body bags was seen being loaded into the back of an ambulance.
Among the missing are Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah, Morgan Stanley International Bank Chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy Bloomer, and Clifford Chance Bank attorney Chris Morbillo and his wife Neda Morbillo.
The body of Recardo Thomas, a Canadian-Antiguan man who worked as a chef on the Baysian superyacht, was recovered from the scene of the wreck on Monday.
Of the 22 passengers and crew on board, 15, including Lynch’s wife, Angela Bakales, escaped to lifeboats and were rescued.
The captain of the yacht Sir Robert BP, which assisted in the rescue, described how passengers on board spotted a distress flare fired from the life raft.
Carsten Borner said the crew realised the Bayesian had disappeared before passengers noticed the flare.
He told Sky News: “We can’t see them anymore, they’ve disappeared from the radar. We’ve been busy sailing our own ship.”
“We never saw the ship again so we realised something was terribly wrong.”
He said it was only when the small boat set sail that they spotted the life raft.
Mr Borner continued: “It was a life raft, a 12-person life raft, with 15 people in it, including a baby.
“They got on our little boat and took us back to our ship where we looked after them very well and provided them with dry clothes, towels, blankets, tea and coffee.”
An inspection of the yacht’s interior hull took place on Wednesday morning.
A team of four British inspectors from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) also arrived in Porticello to inspect the scene of the wreck.
The yacht, the Baysian, was flying a British flag and it is understood the MAIB is investigating what happened.
The Italian coast guard said the MAIB was not involved in the search for the missing people and had not received a request for assistance.
Authorities began questioning the entire crew, including the ship’s captain, James Cutfield, who was reportedly questioned for two hours.
Mr Cutfield’s brother, Mark, told New Zealand media his brother was a “very accomplished sailor” who had spent eight years working on luxury yachts overseas.
Divers from the local fire brigade were seen wading into the water with torches attached to their headgear, and a helicopter was sent in to help with the search effort.
Police boats and divers were also seen in the water on Wednesday afternoon.
Firefighters from the Vigili del Fuoco said they were approaching the ship through a natural entrance without having to open the hull.
The Italian coast guard said the search was being carried out using remotely operated underwater vehicles and also involved naval units and cave divers.
The Baysian was anchored about half a mile off the coast of Porticello when it sank at about 5 a.m. local time on Monday after a storm hit the area.
Vincenzo Zagarola of the Italian coast guard had previously said the missing tourists were feared dead.
The wreckage of the Bayesian lies on the ocean floor 50 metres (164 feet) deep off the coast.
Firefighters described the operation as “complex” and divers were only allowed to spend 12 minutes in the water.
Survivors are recuperating at a hotel complex in Porticello and authorities are gathering witness statements.
The voyage was to celebrate Lynch’s acquittal in a fraud case in the United States.
The businessman, who founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, was released in June after being charged with committing large-scale fraud in connection with the company’s sale to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion (£8.64 billion).
The Financial Times reported that Bloomer appeared at the trial as a witness for Lynch’s defence, but media reports have said the two are close friends.
In a separate incident, Stephen Chamberlain, Lynch’s co-defendant in the US fraud trial, was killed after being hit by a car while jogging in Cambridgeshire on Saturday.
Published date: 22 August 2024 RadioNewsHub
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