PORTICELLO, Sicily — Two months after being cleared in a bruising legal battle over fraud charges, British tech mogul Mike Lynch celebrated his freedom with a cruise. He invited his family, friends and part of his legal team on board his luxury sailing yacht, a majestic 180-foot vessel named Bayesian after the mathematical theorem around which he had built his empire. On Sunday night, after a tour of the Gulf of Naples, including Capri, and volcanic islands in the Eolian archipelago, the boat anchored half a mile off the Sicilian coast in Porticello, Italy.
It chose a stretch of water favored by the Phoenicians thousands of years ago for its protection from the mistral wind and, in more recent times, by the yachts of tech billionaires. The boat was lit "like a Christmas tree," local residents said, standing out against the full moon. But about 4 a.
m., calamity unfolded. A violent and fast storm hit the area with some of the strongest winds locals said they had ever felt.
Fabio Cefalù, a fisherman, said he saw a flare pierce the darkness shortly after 4. Minutes later, the yacht was underwater. Only dozens of cushions from the boat's deck and a gigantic radar from its mast floated on the surface of the sea, fishermen said.
In all, 22 people were on board, 15 of whom were rescued. Six bodies — five passengers and the ship's cook — had been recovered by Thursday afternoon, including that of Lynch, an Italian government official said, adding that the search was continuing.