Police divers resumed the search on Tuesday for six people believed to be trapped in the hull of a superyacht that sank in deep waters off the coast of Sicily, including a British tech tycoon who had been celebrating with his lawyers in court over his recent acquittal on fraud charges.
Civil defense officials said they believe a tornado struck the 184-foot, British-flagged yacht “Bayesian” at sea. The vessel was anchored about half a mile off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo, when it sank in a storm at about 5 a.m. local time on Monday.
Grainy footage taken by a closed-circuit camera on the shore and broadcast on the website of the Sicilian daily showed the Basian’s majestic 246-foot illuminated mast weathering the storm before disappearing within a minute.
Fifteen of the 22 people on board survived, including a mother who said she helped her one-year-old baby out of the waves. One body was recovered and identified by authorities as the ship’s chef, who was born in Antigua. The remaining 10 crew members also survived, including the captain, who prosecutors have reportedly asked to be questioned.
This photo was taken at approximately 10pm on Sunday, August 18, 2024, with the British ship Baysian on the left. Fabio La Bianca/Baia Santa Nicoliccia via The Associated Press
“This is a really big tragedy,” said Edward Llewellyn, the British ambassador to Italy, who visited Porticello on Tuesday. Because the accident involved a British-flagged ship and British nationals were among the missing, Britain has sent four investigators to the scene.
Fire and rescue officials said six other passengers would be considered missing until they were found in the wreckage, including Mike Lynch, a former British technology tycoon who was cleared in June of fraud and conspiracy charges in a U.S. federal trial connected to Hewlett-Packard’s $11 billion acquisition of Autonomy Inc.
Also missing are Christopher Morbillo, one of Lynch’s lawyers, and Jonathan Bloomer, the chairman of Morgan Stanley International and former chairman of Autonomy’s audit committee, who testified in Lynch’s defense.
The wreck of the luxury liner lies about 164 feet below sea level — far deeper than most recreational divers are certified to be and a depth that requires special caution. Salvage crews were only able to stay in the wreck in 12-minute shifts, which made it difficult to reach the cramped interior of the wreck.
In this photo released by the Italian Fire Service on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024, a scuba diver examines a map of the yacht “Basian” in the port of Porticello. Italian Coast Guard/AP
Karsten Borner, captain of the Sir Robert Baden-Powell, which rescued 15 survivors in a lifeboat, said he was close enough to see the Baysian as the storm approached.
“The next moment the ship was gone,” he said. “They said it went under the water and sank in two minutes,” Borner added, citing survivors.
Search teams, made up of two cave divers working in shifts, spent Tuesday opening access points to the inside of the wreck and using a remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV).
Divers were unable to access a cabin at the bottom of the ship because it was blocked off by furniture that had shifted during the violent storm, and rescuers suspect the six missing are in that cabin because the storm hit when most people were asleep, but they were unable to see through the portholes to see if they were there.
Salvage agency spokesman Luca Cali said the search effort was progressing much slower than after another major sinking, the cruise ship Costa Concordia, which capsized off Italy’s Tuscany coast in 2012, due to the depth of the wreck and the limited space available for divers to operate.
“It was a lot simpler there. Everything is tighter here,” he said.
Yacht sinks off the coast of Italy, six missing, including two Americans 00:26
The outing was intended at least in part to celebrate Lynch’s acquittal and “look forward to seeing what happens next,” said Reid Weingarten, a Washington lawyer and member of Lynch’s defense team who was not on the yacht.
“A lot of people went, a lot of people were going to go, and obviously this happened,” Weingarten said.
Several people who supported Lynch throughout his case were in favor of the plan, including Morbillo, the lawyer who Weingarten said was “like a brother.”
Morbillo’s wife, Neda, is also missing, according to his law firm, Clifford Chance.
Aki Hussain, chief executive of international insurer Hiscox Group, of which Mr Bloomer was chairman, said the company was “deeply shocked and saddened by this tragic incident”.
“Our thoughts are with all those affected, particularly our chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy, who are still missing, and their families as they await further information regarding this tragic situation,” he added.
Among the survivors were the Emslie family, who were released Tuesday from Palermo’s Children’s Hospital. Toddler Sophia remained in hospital overnight after being rescued. Her mother, Charlotte Gornski, briefly held on to her 1-year-old daughter in the water before lifting her above the waves and reporting that a lifeboat had inflated and pulled them both to safety, doctors said.
Mike Lynch walks into federal court in San Francisco on March 26, 2024, on charges he defrauded Hewlett-Packard Co. in its $11 billion acquisition of software maker Autonomy. Michael Liedtke/AP
His father, identified by the ANSA news agency as James Emslie, also survived.
“They don’t talk much, mostly because they think of themselves as survivors and don’t understand why they survived given what they went through,” said Dr. Domenico Cipolla, emergency room director at Di Cristina Children’s Hospital.
Cipolla told reporters on Tuesday that Gornski had reported that he and his baby had been sleeping in their cabin when they suddenly found themselves in the water, and that Emslie, who was in another part of the ship, had also found them. Cipolla said the parents have been in contact with other survivors, who are staying in a nearby hotel and waiting for other family members to arrive in Sicily.
The babies slept soundly through the night and after a final check on Tuesday morning, they were all released, he said in a video interview published by Palermo Today, adding that a psychologist was also available.
Other survivors include Lynch’s wife, Angela Bakales, and their 18-year-old daughter, Hannah Lynch, who is believed to be among the missing.
According to online maritime database Equasis, the yacht’s registered owner is Levtom Ltd. Isle of Man company registration documents list Bacares as Levtom’s sole owner.
Italian firefighters and scuba divers stand at anchor in the port of Porticello, southern Italy, on Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024. Salvatore Cavalli/AP
The name “Bayesian” is one of the two main approaches to statistical machine learning and is likely a reference to “Bayesian inference” used by Lynch’s company.
The yacht was built by Italy’s Perini Navi in 2008 and accommodates 12 passengers and 10 crew members. The yacht, which can be chartered for about $215,000 per week, according to online charter companies, highlights its enormous aluminum mast, one of the tallest in the world.
The Coast Guard said so far there has been no evidence of fuel leaking from the wreckage.
In an unrelated case, Lynch’s co-defendant in the Autonomy trial, Stephen Chamberlain, who was also acquitted, was hit by a car and killed while running in Cambridgeshire, England, on Sunday, Chamberlain’s lawyer, Gary Linsenberg, said.