A luxury superyacht carrying foreign tourists capsized and sank off the Italian island of Sicily in bad weather. One body was found, six people remain missing and 15 people were rescued, authorities said. The ship had overturned around 5am local time (1pm AEDT) on Monday off the port of Porticello.
It had a crew of 10 people and 12 passengers, including British, American and Canadian nationalities, the Italian coast guard said. Among the missing is British technology magnate Mike Lynch, according to Italy’s civil protection and authorities. Lynch’s wife and 14 other people survived.
Lynch, who was acquitted in June in a big US fraud trial, was among the six people who remain unaccounted for after their chartered sailboat sank off Porticello, when a tornado over the water known as a waterspout struck the area overnight, said Salvo Cocina of Sicily’s civil protection agency. Source: ANSA / IGOR PETYX/EPA One body has been recovered, and police divers were trying to reach the hull of the ship, which was resting at a depth of 50 metres off Porticello, near Palermo, where it had been anchored, rescue authorities said. A sudden fierce storm had battered the area overnight, and struck the place precisely where the 56-metre British-flagged Bayesian had been moored.
The Bayesian was notable for its single 75-metre mast, one of the world’s tallest made of aluminium and which was lit up at night, just hours before it sank. Source: AAP / Yui Mok Online charter sites list it for r.