The captain of the superyacht that sank off the coast of Italy has been questioned by prosecutors investigating the deaths of seven passengers, Italian newspapers report. Captain James Cutfield, a 51-year old New Zealand national, is being investigated for manslaughter and shipwreck, the dailies La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera said. Such an investigation does not imply guilt.
British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, his daughter Hannah, Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judith Bloomer, lawyer Christopher Morvillo, his wife Neda Morvillo and chef Recaldo Thomas died in the incident in Sicily last Monday. Mr Cutfield was spoken to by magistrates for the second time in a week on Sunday, la Repubblica reported, being questioned for more than two hours. Prosecutors may also investigate a crew member who was on duty when the storm hit and survived the incident, the newspaper reported.
The Bayesian, a 56-metre-long (184-foot) superyacht, was carrying 22 people when it capsized and sank on 19 August within minutes of being hit by a pre-dawn storm while anchored off northern Sicily. Fifteen people survived, including Mr Lynch’s wife, whose company owned the Bayesian. While the yacht had been hit by a sudden meteorological event, it was plausible that crimes of multiple manslaughter and causing a shipwreck through negligence had been committed, the head of the public prosecutor’s office of Termini Imerese, Ambrogio Cartosio, said on Saturday.
Maritime law gives a captain full responsibility for the ship, crew, and all on board. “The Bayesian was built to go to sea in any weather”, Franco Romani, a nautical architect that was part of the team that designed it told daily La Stampa in an interview published on Monday. He said it was likely the yacht had taken on water from a side hatch that was left open.
Read Next Five people killed in Sicily superyacht disaster 'sought refuge in same cabin' Mr Romani said the crew underestimated the bad weather and that they should have made sure that all openings had been shut and the anchor removed before the storm hit the boat. Witnesses told Italian news agency Ansa that Bayesian’s anchor was down when the storm struck, causing the 72m mast to snap in half and the ship to lose its balance and sink. According to reports, those who died when on the luxury yacht were trying to escape the water in the cabin.
Italian emergency services said it was “clear people were trying to hide in cabins” on the opposite side of the boat to that which was sinking most rapidly. Five of the bodies were found in the first cabin on the left hand side, as the vessel sunk to its right, and the sixth body was found in the third cabin on the left, said Bentivoglio Fiandra from local fire rescue service. Mr Cutfield and his eight surviving crew members have made no public comment yet on the disaster.
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