Bayesian yacht UPDATES: Search for tycoon Mike Lynch and daughter Hannah resumes in Sicily after ‘unprecedented’ sinking
BRITISH tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and five others are feared to have died, with their bodies trapped inside a luxury yacht which sank in a tornado.
Vincenzo Zagarola of the Italian Coastguard said this was the working theory of officials on Sicily because it is believed the boat sank quickly and search and rescue efforts by sea and air have so far delivered no results.
He told the PA news agency: "We think they are still inside the boat, that is our very hard idea."
Asked about the likelihood of them being alive, he replied: "Never say never, but reasonably the answer should be not."
Matthew Schanck, chairman of the Maritime Search and Rescue Council, said the tornado that struck the 184ft yacht with 22 people on board should not have caused it to sink.
He told GB News: “It’s sort of unprecedented, really."
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Dive expert fears missing people unlikely to be alive
A diving expert fears the pressure under 164ft of water means it is unlikely the missing Bayesian yacht passengers are alive.
Phil Jones, of the UK-based search team Beneath the Surface, told The Sun it very quickly "becomes a recovery operation" in such circumstances.
Mr Jones, from Trawden, Lancashire, said: "Normally, in underwater conditions you are looking at the first hour or so.
"Then it becomes a recovery operation."
He explained those who survived the ordeal to be quickly rescued were lucky.
"It all happened so quickly that I think unless you're very close to an open exit it'd be very difficult then to escape," he explained.
"And I believe that some of them may have even been asleep."
Read the full story here.
Probe launched into whether hatches left open
Italian authorities are investigating whether hatches left open by crew members caused the yacht to sink.
Hopes are fading fast as divers continue to search for the six missing people.
Prosecutors in the nearby town of Termini Imerese have opened an investigation into the disaster.
They will seek to establish what caused the boat to sink and if any of the crew are criminally liable - or whether it was simply a freak weather event.
One expert at the scene in Sicily told reporters an early focus would be on whether the access hatches into the vessel were closed before the tornado struck.
Luca Mercalli, president of the Italian Meteorological Society, also said that, in light of the weather warnings, the crew should have woken the guests and given them life jackets.
Mike Lynch – a tech ‘giant’
Mike Lynch, below, was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for services to enterprise in 2006, and appointed in 2011 to the science and technology council of the then prime minister, David Cameron.
He was elected as a fellow to the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2008 and the Royal Society in 2014.
A spokesperson for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said: “We are in contact with the local authorities following an incident in Sicily, and stand ready to provide consular support to British nationals affected.”
Credit: REUTERS
What do we know so far?
The yacht is believed to have been flooded by water after a tornado off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo, just before 5am local time on Monday morning.
Helicopters, divers, patrol boats and firefighters are all helping with the desperate search of the wreckage.
A man’s body was tragically found underwater alongside the shipwreck by divers, reports .
A one-year-old British girl was heroically rescued by her mother in the sea before being rushed to hospital by emergency crews in a lifeboat.
Mike Lynch’s wife was among 15 people rescued.
Neda and Chris Morvillo confirmed among those missing
American lawyer Chris Morvillo – a partner at the high-profile Clifford Chance law firm, who worked on Lynch’s recent US fraud trial – is also missing along with his wife, Neda.
Confirming the pair, pictured below, were not accounted for in a statement Tuesday, a Clifford Chance spokesperson said: “We are in shock and deeply saddened by this tragic incident.”
There are now six people confirmed missing following the sinking of the Bayesian on Monday morning. In addition to Chris and Neda Morvillo, these are:
- Mike Lynch – the owner of Bayesian
- Hannah Lynch – his 18-year-old daughter
- Jonathan Bloomer – chairman of Morgan Stanley Bank International
- Judy Bloomer – the wife of Jonathan Bloomer
Inside the £14m superyacht
The Bayesian was 246ft tall and 184ft long. It was built in 2008.
Bloomer among those missing
Jonathan Bloomer, the chairman of Morgan Stanley International, pictured below, has been named as one of the people still missing after the yacht sinking.
He was confirmed missing by Italian authorities, and is a close friend of Mike Lynch, the owner of the yacht.
Credit: PA Bayesian was ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time’
A university professor has said the Bayesian “should not have been off the coast of Porticello”.
Rosario Marretta, professor of Computational Fluid Dynamics at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Palermo, : “Even though I have not seen the documents acquired by the judicial authority I think that the vessel was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“If a vessel goes out of its original position for which it was designed, then it sinks.”
Divers continue to search for missing persons aboard Bayesian
These photographs were taken this morning by the Vigili del Fuoco, the Italian Corps of Firefighters, and show divers off Porticello on the site where the British-flagged luxury yacht Bayesian sank with 22 people onboard.
Credit: GETTY 
Credit: GETTY
The tiny life raft that saved 11 people
New pictures show the tiny life raft, below, that saved 11 people after the Bayesian superyacht sank in Italy on Monday.
The £14million luxury vessel plunged more than 160ft to the bottom of the sea after it was toppled by extreme weather at around 5am on Monday.
Credit: REUTERS 
‘There is a real community in Suffolk’
Mike Lynch told of his relief at being acquitted of fraud just weeks before his superyacht sunk off the coast of Sicily.
In one of his final interviews before the tragedy, he told the East Anglian Daily Times: “Suffolk is totally home for me.
“The lovely thing I find about Suffolk is there is still a real community there. You get to know lots of people doing all sorts of things. When you have been there a time you watch the journey of their lives.”
What has happened during the search today?
Divers are continuing to search for the six people still missing.
Strapping on oxygen bottles, they began their descent this morning in choppy seas to the wreck, some 50 metres below the surface.
Because of the depth, each dive is restricted to 12 minutes each, including two minutes for descending and ascending, according to Luca Cari, spokesman for the fire service.
CCTV captures Bayesian's final moments
Horrifying CCTV video shows the moment the Bayesian superyacht is engulfed by the storm that would sink it.
The vessel disappears in the torrid conditions just a short time before it sank killing one with six still missing.
Missing persons ‘may be trapped in vessel’
Those missing could still be inside the Bayesian, said Salvatore Cocina, head of civil protection in Sicily.
“The fear is that the bodies got trapped inside the vessel,” he told Reuters.
Mike Lynch and five others feared dead
British technology tycoon Mike Lynch and five others are feared to have died, with their bodies trapped inside a luxury yacht which sank in a tornado.
Vincenzo Zagarola of the Italian Coastguard said this was the working theory of officials on Sicily because it is believed the boat sank quickly and search and rescue efforts by sea and air have so far delivered no results.
He told the PA news agency: "We think they are still inside the boat, that is our very hard idea.
"Our search and rescue activity by sea and air has gone on for around 36 hours.
"Of course, we do not exclude that they are not inside the boat, but we know the boat sank quickly.
"We suppose that the six people missing may not have had time to get out of the boat."
Asked about the likelihood of them being alive, he replied: "Never say never, but reasonably the answer should be not."
Neda and Chris Morvillo confirmed among those missing
American lawyer Chris Morvillo - a partner at the high-profile Clifford Chance law firm, who worked on Lynch's recent US fraud trial - is also missing along with his wife, Neda.
Confirming the pair, pictured below, were not accounted for in a statement Tuesday, a Clifford Chance spokesperson said: "We are in shock and deeply saddened by this tragic incident."
There are now six people confirmed missing following the sinking of the Bayesian on Monday morning. In addition to Chris and Neda Morvillo, these are:
- Mike Lynch - the owner of Bayesian
- Hannah Lynch - his 18-year-old daughter
- Jonathan Bloomer - chairman of Morgan Stanley Bank International
- Judy Bloomer - the wife of Jonathan Bloomer
Mike Lynch – a tech ‘giant’
Mike Lynch, below, was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for services to enterprise in 2006, and appointed in 2011 to the science and technology council of the then prime minister, David Cameron.
He was elected as a fellow to the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2008 and the Royal Society in 2014.
A spokesperson for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said: “We are in contact with the local authorities following an incident in Sicily, and stand ready to provide consular support to British nationals affected.”
Credit: REUTERS Bloomer among those missing
Jonathan Bloomer, the chairman of Morgan Stanley International, has been named as one of the people still missing after the yacht sinking.
He was confirmed missing by Italian authorities, and is a close friend of Mike Lynch, the owner of the yacht.
Credit: PA What do we know so far?
The yacht is believed to have been flooded by water after a tornado off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo, just before 5am local time on Monday morning.
Helicopters, divers, patrol boats and firefighters are all helping with the desperate search of the wreckage.
A man’s body was tragically found underwater alongside the shipwreck by divers, reports .
A one-year-old British girl was heroically rescued by her mother in the sea before being rushed to hospital by emergency crews in a lifeboat.
Mike Lynch’s wife was among 15 people rescued.
Divers continue to search for missing persons aboard Bayesian
These photographs were taken this morning by the Vigili del Fuoco, the Italian Corps of Firefighters, and show divers off Porticello on the site where the British-flagged luxury yacht Bayesian sank with 22 people onboard.
Credit: GETTY 
Credit: GETTY Why did the Bayesian sink (2)?
Mr Jefferson told the PA news agency: "I would have said that the boat got hit very hard by the wind, it was pinned over on its side.
"I imagine all the doors were open because it was hot, so there were enough hatches and doors open that it filled with water very quickly and sank like that.
"The reason it got pinned over so hard was because the mast is huge.
"It acted almost like a sail. [It] pushed the boat hard over on its side.
"[The boat] filled with water before it could right.
"This is all speculation, but that's the only logical explanation."
Why did the superyacht sink (1)?
Hatches and doors left open overnight on the superyacht Bayesian may have caused it to sink in Italy, a sailing expert has said.
Sam Jefferson, editor of magazine Sailing Today, believes the vessel's huge mast is also likely to have contributed to the deadly event.
One body has been found and six people remain missing after Bayesian sank off the coast of Palermo, Sicily, in the early hours of Monday.
It is believed the ship was struck by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout.
What has happened during the search this morning?
On Tuesday, divers searching for the six people still missing strapped on oxygen bottles and began their descent in choppy seas to the wreck, some 50 metres below the surface.
Because of the depth, each dive is restricted to 12 minutes each, including two minutes for descending and ascending, according to Luca Cari, spokesman for the fire service.
Captain speaks for first time from hospital bed
James Catfield, the captain of the yacht who is recovering at the Termini Imerese hospital, has spoken to Italian media for the first time.
La Repubblica quotes Mr Catfield as saying: “We didn’t see it coming.”
'There is a real community in Suffolk'
Mike Lynch told of his relief at being acquitted of fraud just weeks before his superyacht sunk off the coast of Sicily.
In one of his final interviews before the tragedy, he told the East Anglian Daily Times: "Suffolk is totally home for me.
"The lovely thing I find about Suffolk is there is still a real community there. You get to know lots of people doing all sorts of things. When you have been there a time you watch the journey of their lives."
