Five bodies found in sunken superyacht, officials say
Divers have found five bodies in the sunken wreckage of a superyacht that sank off Sicily this week, Italian officials told news agencies and local media Wednesday, leaving one person still missing.
Three bodies were brought ashore and two others were also found inside the shipwreck, Salvatore Cocina, head of the Sicily civil protection agency, told the Associated Press, after divers were photographed by the agency unloading body bags. Cocina did not identify the deceased.
The British-flagged, 183-foot-long Bayesian was carrying 12 passengers and 10 crew members roughly half a mile from the Sicilian fishing village of Porticello when it encountered what authorities called a “violent storm” about 4 a.m. Monday.
Of the 15 people rescued, eight – including a 1-year-old girl – were taken to hospitals in conditions that were not life-threatening. The body of the yacht’s chef, identified as Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian Antiguan, was found during initial recovery efforts.
Among the passengers was Mike Lynch, 59, the British founder of the tech venture capital firm Invoke Capital and co-founder of the tech firms Autonomy and Darktrace. This summer, he was acquitted of all charges after a decadelong U.S. fraud trial related to the 2011 sale of Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard.
The voyage on the Bayesian, owned by a company controlled by Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, was intended to be a celebration of his legal victory, Britain’s Telegraph reported.
Among those missing were Lynch; his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah; Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy; and attorney Chris Morvillo, a partner at Clifford Chance in New York who represented Lynch in the recently concluded legal battle, and his wife, Neda. Bacares, Lynch’s wife, was among the survivors.
It’s not clear exactly what type of storm struck the Bayesian, but weather data suggests it was probably a tornadic waterspout or severe thunderstorm.
Charlotte Golunski, a guest of Lynch who was rescued, described to Italian media holding onto her 1-year-old daughter, Sophie, amid the storm. “For two seconds I lost my baby in the sea,” she told Giornale di Sicilia. “Then I immediately hugged her again amid the fury of the waves.”
Lynch sold Autonomy, which was once England’s biggest software company, to Hewlett-Packard in 2011 for more than $11 billion. He was subsequently accused of overvaluing the company and was charged in the United States with fraud. He was acquitted in June.
The Bayesian was built in 2008 by Italian shipmaker Perini Navi, according to the SuperYacht Times.
The Sir Robert, a Dutch-flagged sailing vessel anchored nearby, responded immediately to help survivors before the Italian coast guard arrived.
The yacht sank to a depth of more than 160 feet. The first attempt by fire-brigade cave divers to search inside the yacht was unsuccessful, rescue authorities said.
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Bryan Pietsch contributed to this report.