Specialist divers need up to 24 hours to search just one metre of the , an expert has revealed. The search of the vessel, which sank on Monday after being hit by a tornado, entered its fifth day on Friday with the Italian fire service saying that moving within the luxury yacht is “very difficult”. Luca Cari, a spokesman for the fire rescue service, told Sky News: “It’s very difficult to move inside the wreckage.
” He added: “Moving just one metre can take up to 24 hours.” The Italian coastguard confirmed that the sixth and final person had been located on the vessel, and is , the 18-year-old daughter of the technology tycoon Mike Lynch. Divers have spoken about the challenges of dealing with narrow corridors and floating debris obstructing their progress.
Marco Tilotta, a firefighter diver from Palermo, said divers had been going “centimetre by centimetre” inside the vessel, adding that the hull being tilted 90 degrees made access “difficult”. He said: “If you can get into the hull, you can see that there is a world of objects inside. “We will not stop.
We have both the resources, the men and the equipment.” The operation has been likened the search to the , which ran aground in January 2012 off the Italian island of Giglio, claiming the lives of 32 crew and passengers. At the time, divers had to navigate inverted corridors, leaking fuel and floating debris and furnishings in their search for the victims.
He said: “It looked like a scenario similar to the Costa Concordia on a smaller scale.’ “Unfortunately, these are very complicated searches.” Fifteen of the 22 passengers and crew on board, including Mr Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, were rescued by emergency crew after the yacht suffered damage owing to the waterspout.
The group had been invited onboard to celebrate Mr Lynch’s court victory after he was acquitted of fraud in San Francisco. His and his daughter’s bodies are believed to be among the five recovered from the wreckage thus far..
