The official causes of death of the two victims of the Bayesian superyacht tragedy have been revealed.
The £14m ship was caught in a storm off the coast of northern Sicily on August 19, capsized and sank to the seabed within minutes.
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The £14m superyacht Bayesian – which sank off the coast of Sicily on August 19 Credit: EPA
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Autopsy results showed that Chris and Neda Morvillo died of drowning in the Bayes tragedyCredit: Getty
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Billionaire Mike Lynch with his daughter Hannah – both died on the yacht
Autopsies performed on couple Chris and Neda Morvillo confirmed they both died of drowning, sources said Monday.
Officials found “no signs” of any other injuries that could have led to their deaths.
Autopsies on the remaining seven victims are expected to be completed during the rest of the week as a coroner’s inquest into the tragedy continues.
The luxury superyacht was caught in a terrible storm last month which caused it to sink in the early hours of the morning.
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Of the 22 aboard, 15 survived, but tragically seven died, including lawyer Chris and his wife Neda.
British billionaire Mike Lynch and his daughter Hannah were among the dead along with yacht chef Recaldo Thomas.
Judy and Jonathon Bloomer also lost their lives.
It comes as the captain of the convicted Bayesian, James Cutfield, 51, is under investigation for manslaughter.
Kiwi Cutfield, along with two other members of his crew, are under investigation by Italian authorities for the shipwreck and multiple murder.
Prosecutors are investigating ship’s engineer Tim Parker-Eaton, from Clophill, Beds, and seaman Matthew Griffith, 22, on the same charges.
Italian authorities reveal first key findings of Bayes’ manslaughter inquiry into tragic sinking after ‘mistakes’
The investigation does not imply guilt or mean that any of the men will be formally charged.
Investigators are said to be reviewing CCTV footage and photographs taken by locals on the night of the storm to understand why the ship sank so quickly.
At a press conference at the Termini Imerese courthouse on Saturday, chief prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio said there may have been “behaviour that was not perfectly fine given the responsibility that everyone had”.
His team will investigate whether vents are left open, allowing water to enter.
They will also check if the crew raised the alarm before escaping.
He promised that he would “find out how much they knew and to what extent all the people (passengers) were warned”.
Mr Cartosio added: “It could actually be murder. But this is the beginning of the investigation, we cannot rule anything out… We will determine the responsibility of each element (crew).
“To me, it’s likely that crimes were committed – that it could be manslaughter.”
Divers spent five days searching the wreckage of the Bayes to recover the bodies of six passengers who went missing last month.
They found Mike Lynch and his four guests, Chris, Neda, Jonathan and Judy in the first cabin on the left.
Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah was the last passenger to be discovered in the third cabin.
Officials said the victims struggled to reach air pockets in the yacht as it sank stern first before flipping on its starboard side to the seabed.
The CEO of the company that built Bayesian told the Sun that crew error could be responsible for the disaster on the “unsinkable” ship.
Survivors of the crash, including Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, 57, left Sicily on a private jet last Sunday.
Within Bayesian’s last 16 minutes
Ellie Doughty, foreign news reporter
Data collected from the Bayesian Automatic Identification System (AIS) reveals exactly how it sank in a painful minute-by-minute timeline.
At 3.50am on Monday 19 August, the Bayesian began shaking “dangerously” during a violent storm, Italian newspaper Corriere revealed.
Just minutes later, at 3.59am, the ship’s anchor gave way, and the source said data showed there was “no more anchor to hold”.
After the storm ripped out the ship’s mooring, it was dragged through the water for about 358 meters.
By 4 a.m., he began taking on water and blacked out, indicating that the waves had reached his generator or even the engine room.
At 4.05am Bayesian had completely disappeared under the waves.
An emergency GPS signal was finally sent at 4.06am to the coastguard station in Bari, a nearby town, alerting them that the ship had sunk.
Initial reports suggest the disaster occurred at around 5am local time off the coast of the port of Porticello in Palermo, Sicily.
New data pulled from the ship’s AIS appears to suggest it happened an hour earlier, around 4am.
About 15 of the 22 on board were rescued, 11 of whom boarded an inflatable life raft that popped up on deck.
A smaller nearby boat – named the Sir Robert Baden Powell – then helped take these men to shore.
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Autopsy results for Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy, are not yet complete. Credit: Enterprise
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Chef Recaldo Thomas’ body was first found Credit: Enterprise
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James Cutfield, 51, Captain of the Bayesian
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: HIS Education