CCTV footage has shown the moment a storm off the coast of Sicily engulfed the Bayesian luxury yacht carrying 22 people. The superyacht was moored around half-a-mile off the coast of Porticello when it sank at around 5am local time on Monday as the area was hit by a storm. The tall mast of the craft can be seen in the black-and-white footage, as rain appears to be lashing down in the foreground.
Italian officials have said they fear British technology tycoon Mike Lynch and five others may have been trapped inside the boat. An expert has suggested they could be relaying air pockets to survive. Follow The Independent’s live blog for the latest updates 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 said: “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.” The CCTV footage taken from a villa only 200-metres away shows the £14million the yacht slowly disappearing off the coast of Porticello, S.