A Canadian man has died, according to multiple media outlets, and several people remain missing after a luxury superyacht was capsized during a freak storm off the coast of Sicily early Monday. Fifteen of the 22 people onboard were rescued, including a one-year-old girl, authorities said on Monday. British tech magnate Mike Lynch, and his 18-year-old daughter, are still reported missing.
Also unaccounted for are Christopher Morvillo, one of Lynch’s lawyers, his wife, and Jonathan Bloomer, a chairman at Morgan Stanley International. Police divers resumed their search on Tuesday, and believe the remaining passengers are trapped in the hull of the sunken superyacht. Media outlets conflict on the name of the Canadian who died.
CBC reported that Thomas Recaldo, the ship’s cook was a Canadian-born man who had been living in Antigua. The BBC reported Recaldo Thomas as a Canadian-Antiguan chef who was working on the yacht. Global Affairs Canada confirmed Monday afternoon that it is aware of reports a Canadian citizen has died, and extended “deepest sympathies to everyone affected by this tragic event.
” A luxury superyacht carrying foreign tourists capsized and sank off the Italian island of Sicily in bad weather early Monday. One body was found, six people remain missing and 15 people were rescued, authorities said. (AP Video / Aug.
19, 2024) Canadian consular officials are in touch with local authorities, and for privacy reasons, “no further information can be disclosed,” a Global Affairs spokesperson said in an email to the Star. The regional Italian coast guard and the local port authority did not respond to the Star’s request for comment on Tuesday. The sailboat, chartered by British tech giant Mike Lynch, had overturned sometime before 5 a.
m. off the port of Porticello, near Palermo, where it was anchored. It had a crew of 10 people and 12 passengers, the Italian coast guard said.
Local media said a sudden fierce storm, including tornadoes over water known as waterspouts, had battered the area overnight but skies were clear and seas calm by Monday morning. One of the survivors, identified only as Charlotte, said she had momentarily lost hold of her one-year-old daughter Sofia in the water, but then managed to hold her up over the waves until a lifeboat inflated and they were both pulled to safety, Italian news agency ANSA reported, quoting the mother. One body was found, six people were missing and 15 people were rescued, authorities said.
(AP Video / Aug. 19, 2024) The 56-metre (184-foot) British-flagged Bayesian was known for its single 75-metre (246-feet) mast, one of the world’s tallest made of aluminum and which was lit up at night, just hours before it sank. Online charter sites list it for rent for up to 195,000 euros (about $295,000 Canadian) a week.
Lynch, 59, built up one of Britain’s largest software firms before selling it to Hewlett Packard in 2011 for $11 billion, which put him on Forbes’ billionaires list in 2014 and 2015. The deal unravelled after Hewlett Packard accused Lynch of fraud and he was indicted by the U.S.
Justice Department in 2018. It took years to extradite Lynch from the U.K.
before he was eventually acquitted in June. The British tech giant was among the six people who remain unaccounted for. According to the Associated Press, Lynch was celebrating his recent acquittal on the yacht before it capsized.
“I am looking forward to returning to the U.K. and getting back to what I love most: my family and innovating in my field,” Lynch said after his acquittal in June.
In an unrelated event, Lynch’s co-defendant in the fraud trial who was also cleared, Stephen Chamberlain, was killed Sunday when he was hit by a car while running in Cambridgeshire, England, said Chamberlain’s lawyer, Gary Lincenberg..
