DIVERS have recovered video surveillance equipment from Mike Lynch’s superyacht Basyesian that could reveal key details of its sinking.
The businessman and father-of-two, dubbed “Britain’s Bill Gates”, died along with his teenage daughter when his superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily on August 19.
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Billionaire Mike Lynch with his daughter Hannah – both died on the yacht Credit: EPA
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Jonathan and Judy Bloomer died in the sinking of the luxury yacht Bayesian off the coast of SicilyCredit: Enterprise
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Chris and Neda Morvillo also lost their lives Credit: Getty
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The £14m superyacht Bayesian – which sank off the coast of Sicily on August 19 Credit: EPA
Prosecutors investigating the sinking hired six elite divers from the “Comsubin” special forces unit who repeatedly dived to the sunken vessel.
Italian navy divers were able to retrieve surveillance equipment, including computers and hard drives.
Now they await analysis in specialized laboratories, the report says.
The devices will be examined to see if any data or potentially video showing how the yacht sank – including whether any doors were left open – can be discovered.
This is done using a hyperbaric chamber.
The captain of the convicted Bayesian, James Cutfield (51), is being investigated 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 also investigating ship’s engineer Tim Parker-Eaton, from Clophill, Beds, and seaman Matthew Griffith, 22, on the same charges.
The investigation does not imply guilt or mean that any of the men will be formally charged.
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”.
Four Bayes victims SURVIVED sinking superyacht but died in air bubbles, autopsies show
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.”
The body of Mike Lynch and his four guests, Chris, Neda, Jonathan and Judy, were found in the first cabin on the left.
Divers recovered five of the six missing passengers – including Lynch – in a single cabin on the port side of the yacht, which went down on its starboard side to the seabed.
The judicial investigation into the yacht tragedy is ongoing.
The luxury ship was caught in a terrible storm, which caused it to sink in the early hours of the morning.
Of the 22 on board, 15 survived and 11, including Mike Lynch’s wife, were rescued in an inflatable life raft.
Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah was the last passenger to be discovered in the third cabin.
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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Chef Recaldo Thomas’ body was first found Credit: Enterprise
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James Cutfield, 51, Captain Bayesian Credits: Enterprise
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: HIS Education