Newly released video captures a luxury superyacht being battered by a violent storm before it suddenly sank off the coast of Sicily with 22 people aboard Monday. The grainy images obtained by NBC News and other outlets were recorded on closed-circuit television not far from where the Bayesian was anchored, about a half-mile from the port of Porticello, on Sicily’s northern coast . The yacht's 250-foot mast, illuminated with lights and lashed by the storm, appears to be bending to one side before it finally disappears and is replaced by darkness.
The speed with which a yacht built to handle the roughest seas capsized stunned maritime experts. “I can’t remember the last time I read about a vessel going down quickly like that, you know, completely capsizing and going down that quickly, a vessel of that nature, a yacht of that size,” said Captain Stephen Richter of SAR Marine Consulting Inc. British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and five of the 21 other people who were aboard the 184-foot vessel remain unaccounted for and are believed to be trapped in the Bayesian’s hull, nearly 170 feet underwater.
Officials on Monday confirmed that at least one person, the ship’s cook, had died. Superyachts like the Bayesian, which had been available for charters at a rate of $215,000-a-week, are designed to stay afloat even as they are taking on water to give the people aboard a chance to escape, Richter said. “Boats of this size, they’re taking passengers on an excursion or a holiday.