Porticello, Sicily: Police divers resumed searching for six people believed trapped in the hull of a super yacht that sank in deep seas off Sicily, including a British tech magnate who was celebrating his recent acquittal on fraud charges with the people who had defended him at trial. The luxury sailboat, off Porticello near Palermo, was some 50 meters underwater — far deeper than most recreational divers are certified for and a depth that requires special precautions. Recovery crews could only stay for 12-minute shifts, a measure that slowed their efforts to reach the cramped inside of the wreck.
An Italian Firefighters helicopter flies over the harbor of Porticello, southern Italy. Credit: AP The Bayesian, a 56-meter British-flagged yacht, was moored about a kilometre offshore when a storm rolled in before 4am Monday. Civil protection officials said they believed the ship was struck by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout, and sank quickly.
Grainy film from closed-circuit cameras from shore, broadcast on the website of the Giornale di Sicilia, showed the majestic, illuminated 75-meter mast of the Bayesian weathering the storm and then disappearing over the course of a minute. Fifteen of the 22 people aboard survived, including a mother who reported holding her 1-year-old baby over the waves to save her. One body was recovered, identified by officials as the Antiguan-born on-board chef.
The rest of the 10-person crew survived, including the captain whom prosecutors reportedly sought to interview. “It’s a great, great tragedy,” said Britain’s ambassador to Italy, Edward Llewellyn, who visited Porticello. Britain sent four investigators to the scene, given the disaster involved a British-flagged ship and British citizens were among the missing.
Fire rescue officials have said the six other passengers will be considered missing until they are located in the wreckage. They include tycoon Mike Lynch, who was once hailed as Britain’s king of technology and was cleared in June of fraud and conspiracy charges in a U.S.
federal trial related to Hewlett Packard’s $US11 billion takeover of his company, Autonomy Corp. Also unaccounted for are Christopher Morvillo, one of Lynch’s lawyers, and Jonathan Bloomer, a chairman at Morgan Stanley International and the former head of the Autonomy audit committee who testified in Lynch’s defence..
