Divers and an underwater drone searched Tuesday for six people, including a British tech tycoon and international banker, believed trapped when a luxury yacht sank off Sicily. The 56-meter yacht "Bayesian" was anchored with 10 crew and 12 passengers on board when it was struck by a waterspout mini-tornado, before dawn on Monday. Fifteen people, including a woman and her one-year-old baby, were rescued.
The body of one man -- reported to be the yacht's chef -- was found. Among the six missing were UK tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, and Jonathan Bloomer, the chair of Morgan Stanley International, and his wife Judy. The passengers were guests of Lynch -- sometimes referred to as Britain's Bill Gates -- to celebrate his acquittal in a massive U.
S. fraud case. While Italy's coast guard said the search continued without a break, Captain Vincenzo Zagarola said it was "difficult to imagine" it would end well.
Experts and officials have described the sinking as an "extraordinary" event. The search was made difficult by the British-flagged yacht lying largely intact on the seabed some 50 meters down. Divers take one minute to get down and another minute to get back.
They are restricted to 12 minutes for each dive because of the water pressure, according to fire service spokesman Luca Cari. Lynch's wife Angela Bacares was among those rescued, according to Salvo Cocina, head of Sicily's Civil Protection Agency. As well as Bloomer, who testified for Lynch.