Accident For Members Search for missing in Sicily yacht disaster resumes AFP/The Local - [email protected] Published: 20 Aug, 2024 CET. Updated: Tue 20 Aug 2024 08:23 CET Share Add a comment File photo of an Italian coast guard rescue boat moored in a Sicilian port. Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP Specialist divers on Tuesday morning launched a fresh search for six people, including UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his teenage daughter, who remained missing after their yacht capsized in a violent storm off Sicily's coast.
Advertisement The British-flagged Bayesian, which had 22 people aboard including 10 crew members, was anchored some 700 metres off the port of Porticello, east of Palermo, when it was struck by a waterspout before dawn on Monday. Lynch's wife Angela Bacares was among 15 people rescued, but the businessman and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah were missing, Salvo Cocina, head of the Civil Protection Agency in Sicily, told AFP. Divers trained to work in tight spaces were flown in from Rome and Sardinia late on Monday, but a first search of the wreck some 50 metres underwater failed.
"Access was limited only to the bridge, with difficulty due to the presence of furniture obstructing passage", the Italian fire service said on X. The 56-metre-long luxury vessel was moored off Sicily's coast when violent winds and rains suddenly hit the area. "It was terrible.
The boat was hit by really strong wind and shortly after it went down," a British survivor named as Charlotte Golunski told ANSA news agency. Golunski lost hold of her one-year-old daughter in the waves "for two seconds", before managing to grab her "while the sea raged", she said. "Lots of people were screaming" in the dark, said Golunski, who managed to get on a life raft.
The seas were calm on Monday afternoon as divers recovered a body, reported to be the yacht's chef. They also spotted a body inside the sunken vessel, a source close to the recovery operation said. Advertisement Lynch, aged 59, is a celebrated tech entrepreneur and investor who's frequently referred to as the UK's 'Bill Gates'.
Most of those aboard were British, and the passengers were guests of Lynch, according to Italian media. Lynch was acquitted of all charges in a San Francisco court in early June after he was accused of an $11-billion fraud linked to the sale of his software firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard. The Bayesian was a luxury yacht built by Italian shipbuilding firm Perini Navi in 2008 which boasted a 75-metre mast – the tallest aluminium sailing mast in the world, according to the Charter World website.
A photograph posted on social media on Monday by the Baia Santa Nicolicchia bar in Porticello showed the yacht all lit up, its towering mast shining in the darkness, just a few hours before the storm hit. Advertisement Karsten Borner, the captain of another yacht anchored nearby at the time of the storm, said there was a "very strong hurricane gust" and he had to battle to keep his vessel steady. He saw the Bayesian's mast "bend and then snap", according to Italy's Corriere della Sera.
Italian authorities have opened a probe into the incident. More #Accident #Sicily Comments Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected] .
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