Authorities investigate if the open hatches caused superyacht to sink By Miriam Kuepper and Katherine Lawton Published: 09:17 BST, 21 August 2024 | Updated: 09:17 BST, 21 August 2024 e-mail Advertisement Italian authorities have opened an investigation into whether hatches left open by crew members on tech tycoon Mike Lynch's superyacht caused it to sink so quickly. The £30million Bayesian went down in a matter of minutes after being struck by a freak waterspout while it was anchored off the coast of Porticello in Sicily at on Monday morning. While 15 people were rescued in the aftermath of the disaster, six people are still missing, including billionaire Mr Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah and a boss at Morgan Stanley bank.
The search for those who are not accounted for has entered its third day this morning, with rescue divers continuing their efforts to reach the cabins in the hopes of finding them. An engineer has claimed the missing passengers could still be alive in air pockets 164ft below the surface, meaning divers - who can only remain underwater for ten minutes per dive due to the depth of where the wreck is - are competing in a race against time. Their operation has been hampered by difficulty getting into the ship with divers forced to smash their way through a 3cm-thick porthole to gain access to one area and other parts of the wrecked vessel blocked by furniture.
One expert at the scene said an early focus of the official investigation into the tragedy, l.