4 bodies recovered from tech tycoon Mike Lynch’s sunken luxury yacht

ROME – Divers scouring the wreck of a luxury yacht that sank off the coast of Sicily have found the bodies of four of the six passengers who had been missing, a source close to the operation said on Aug 21.

“Four bodies have been found so far,” the source told Agence France-Presse on condition of anonymity.

This source, however, did not confirm Italian media reports that two of them had been identified as the 59-year-old tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah.

The British-flagged Bayesian, a 56m-long superyacht owned by Mr Lynch’s wife, was carrying 22 passengers and crew and was anchored off the port of Porticello, near Palermo, when it capsized during a fierce, pre-dawn storm on Aug 19.

Rescuers did not immediately release the identities of the victims found on Aug 21. One of the bodies belonged to a heavily built man, while the second was that of a woman, Italian news agency Adnkronos reported.

Body bags were brought into the harbour of Porticello aboard a fire brigade boat and lifted onto the quayside.

Divers and specialist rescuers have been searching inside the hull of the sunken yacht since Aug 19.

The victims were trapped inside their cabins, which had proven extremely hard to get to, with divers only able to stay in the boat for eight to 10 minutes before having to resurface.

Fifteen people managed to escape the yacht before it capsized in the pre-dawn tempest, while the body of the onboard chef, Canadian-Antiguan national Recaldo Thomas, was found near the wreck hours after the disaster.

That had left six passengers missing  – Mr Lynch and his daughter; Mr Jonathan Bloomer, a non-executive chairman of Morgan Stanley International, and his wife, Judy; and Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda.

The wreck of the Bayesian was lying sideways at a depth of around 50m, giving divers eight to 10 minutes to inspect it before having to resurface.

Efforts have been hampered by “very confined” spaces inside the wreck, fire department spokesman Luca Cari said.

The Italian coast guard said it was using a remotely operated vehicle to inspect the seabed and take underwater pictures and videos that may provide “useful and timely elements” for ongoing investigations into the disaster.

Missing passengers

Mr Lynch is one of Britain’s best-known tech entrepreneurs. He built the country’s largest software firm, Autonomy, and was referred to as Britain’s Bill Gates.

He sold the firm to HP for US$11 billion (S$14.4 billion) in 2011, after which the deal spectacularly unravelled, with the US tech giant accusing him of fraud, resulting in a lengthy trial.

Mr Lynch was acquitted on all charges by a jury in San Francisco in June.

Experts have been at a loss to explain how a large luxury vessel, presumed to have top-class fittings and safety features, could have sunk within minutes, as recounted by witnesses. Another yacht anchored next to it was unharmed by the storm.

The Bayesian was built by Italian shipbuilder Perini in 2008 and last refitted in 2020. It had the world’s tallest aluminium mast, measuring 72m, according to its makers.

Black swan event

Its captain, Mr James Cutfield, a 51-year-old New Zealander who survived the shipwreck, was a “very good sailor” and “very well respected” in the Mediterranean, his brother Mark told The New Zealand Herald.

Mr Matthew Schanck, chairman of the Maritime Search and Rescue Council, said the Bayesian was the victim of a “high-impact” and rare weather event.

“Looking at the extreme weather, if it was a water spout, which it appears to be, it’s what I would class as like a black swan event,” he told Reuters. “And even outside of the maritime industry, all industries struggle with the black swan events.”

He said he was confident that the authorities would “get to the bottom” of what caused the shipwreck, thanks to the accounts of survivors and witnesses as well as examination of the ship, which appears to have remained intact on the seabed. REUTERS, AFP