Rescue teams searching the luxury yacht off the coast of Italy for six missing people are facing tough conditions, including short dive window and scattered debris on board, an expert has told the BBC. Crews have spent the past two days searching the ship, and trying to access the areas where the passengers may be. The Bayesian yacht was carrying 22 people when it sank in freak weather conditions early on Monday.
One man has been confirmed to have died in the incident, and a search for the six people still missing continues - the Italian coastguard believes they could still be trapped in the sunken yacht. “You have current, you have wind, you have waves, you have everything," Guy Thomas, a diving instructor and a member of the special rescue team of the Italian Red Cross, tells the BBC. He is not involved in this specific rescue attempt, but says he believes "there will be a lot of debris" - making conditions for rescue crews challenging.
The Italian fire department has said that its divers initially struggled to even get inside the vessel, as furniture was obstructing the passageway. And the ship's hull's location - tilted at a 90-degree angle - has created similar difficulties, the inspector of the diving unit, Marco Tilotta, told the Reuters news agency. The issue for rescuers is that when a boat goes down in a tornado-like storm, everything that is not attached will either fall or float, Mr Thomas explains.
Rescuers also face challenges trying to access the part of the .