TWO bodies recovered from the Bayesian superyacht have been confirmed as those of tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his teenage daughter Hannah.
Divers also recovered a further three victims as they searched the wreckage – leaving just one more missing after the tragic shipwreck disaster off the coast of Sicily.
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Mike Lynch with his wife Angela Bacares
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The yacht’s chef, Ricardo Thomas, was confirmed dead on MondayCredit: Facebook
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184ft £14m superyacht dubbed ‘Bayesian’ before sinking Credit: EPA
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Divers at the scene on Wednesday afternoonCredit: AFP
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An Italian fire service dive team (left) surfaced next to their rigid inflatable boat at the dive site Credit: PA
Billionaire Mr Lynch, 59 – known as “Britain’s Bill Gates” – and his daughter Hannah, 18, were brought ashore earlier today.
Two unidentified sets of remains were also brought ashore – leaving families with an agonizing wait for news.
And a fifth body was found late Wednesday in the wreckage of the Bayesian.
It was a heartbreaking end to a desperate search as divers tirelessly searched the wreckage, which lay 160 feet below the sea near Porticello.
READ MORE ABOUT THE YACHT TRAGEDY
The ultra-luxury yacht sank beneath the waves in the early hours of Monday morning after being hit by a rare “Black Swan” water tornado.
Sleeping party guests and crew were suddenly awakened and forced to flee for their lives – with 15 of the 22 on board managing to escape.
But tragically, Mr Lynch, his daughter and their friends – Jonathan and Judy Bloomer and Chris and Neda Morvillo – went down with the yacht.
And the ship’s chef, Ricardo Thomas, was found dead in the water on Monday.
The official death toll is six – with another string of remains believed to be trapped on the yacht.
The tech tycoon’s wife – Angela Bacares, 57 – was one of those who managed to escape in a tiny life raft as the ship capsized and was towed by the storm.
Bayesian superyacht sunk by ‘Black Swan’ freak water tornado, expert says ‘we’ve never faced anything like it’
Italian rescue teams have launched a desperate three-day search – with the hope that a miracle could happen for those trapped on board.
The first two bodies found today were trapped by mattresses inside the cabin, reports La Repubblica.
Ambulances were seen leaving the harbor after the remains were recovered by divers.
Salvo Cocina, director general of Sicily’s civil protection, told The Telegraph: “On behalf of myself and my colleagues, I would like to express my deepest condolences to the families of the victims and express our condolences to them at this difficult time.”
About 50 emergency workers are still helping in the search.
Eight divers from all over Italy are still tirelessly searching the wreck trying to locate the remaining two missing passengers.
The UK’s Maritime Accident Investigation Branch has now opened its own investigation into the sinking of the Bayesian.
Of the 12 passengers and 10 crew members, 15 were rescued from the water, including a one-year-old British girl and her mum.
The Italian coastguard has vowed not to give up until all those feared dead inside the sunken yacht are found.
The captain of the failed superyacht James Cutfield, 51, was grilled by police for more than two hours after divers discovered the ship’s keel had been raised – caused by a possible fatal error by the crew.
It comes as…
Police, who spoke to survivors of the tragedy, questioned the captain for several hours about the disaster, Giornale Di Sicilia reported.
The desperate search entered its third day today with dramatic footage showing firefighters, helicopters, police and divers searching the sea.
Rescuers have deployed an underwater robotic drone to aid in the search mission with images showing divers operating it from a boat on the surface.
It can remain underwater for up to seven hours at a depth of 300 m, capturing useful images and video.
The divers finally reached the “main cabin” – where the captain probably stayed – late this morning, according to Italy’s Giornale Di Sicilia.
Later reports said they reached an area near the passenger cabins, where the Coast Guard believed six tourists were trapped.
Although the 184-foot yacht lies “virtually intact” on its side on the sea floor, rescuers have been struggling to get inside for several days.
Diver Marco Tilotta said there was a “world of objects” including furniture and debris obscuring the narrow steps outside the cabins.
Rescuers were also working under a time crunch as they only had 10 minutes to search for the dive.
Luca Cari, head of the local fire department, explained: “They can stay under water for a maximum of 12 minutes, two of which are needed to get up and down.
“So the actual time to conduct the search is 10 minutes per dive.”
Italian newspaper E News said Cari told them the diving teams faced “considerable difficulties” during the search.
He said, “It’s a little Concordia.
“The spaces inside the ship are very small and if you encounter an obstacle it is very complicated to move forward, just as it is very difficult to find alternative routes.”
Who was Mike Lynch?
FORMER billionaire businessman Mike Lynch was found today after a £14 million luxury yacht capsized in a tornado off the coast of Sicily on Monday morning.
The tech tycoon, dubbed “Britain’s Bill Gates”, was one of 22 people sailing on the £166,000-a-week ship.
Lynch, 59, was a serial entrepreneur who founded and sold technology and software companies, one of his biggest being Autonomy Corporation.
He was also involved with Invoke Capital and cyber security firm Darktrace.
As well as being awarded an OBE in 2006 for his services to entrepreneurship.
Born in Ilford, Lynch had a fireman father from County Cork and a nurse mother from County Tipperary.
Away from work, Mike was happily married to his wife Angela Bacares and the couple had two children.
Angela is among those rescued on the superyacht.
In 2023, the Sunday Times Rich List put the couple’s worth at £852 million.
But Mike was extradited to the US in 2023 on fraud charges and a judge set his bail at £79m.
Just weeks ago, Lynch was acquitted by a San Francisco jury after a 12-year legal battle over the sale of his company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in 2011 for $11 billion.
The wrecked yacht, named the Bayesian, is also said to be owned by the Lynch family.
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Rescuers operate an underwater drone from the surface
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Emergency workers set up a tent in Porticello harbor this afternoon after a body was found Credit: Reuters
The Concordia was a cruise ship that struck an underwater rock in 2012 and capsized, killing 33 people.
The ship capsized at around 5am local time on Monday when the mast collapsed near the coast of Sicily during extreme weather conditions.
Torrential rain and wind ravaged much of Palermo’s Porticello harbor overnight on Sunday – battering the superyacht with swirling columns of air that formed plumes of water.
Witnesses said the 246-foot boat mast – the second tallest in the world – snapped in half.
Others told Italian news outlet Ansa that the anchor was down when the storm hit on Monday morning, causing the ship to lose its balance.
It comes as maritime experts believe the yacht may have been sunk by a strange “Black Swan” waterspout that would appear without warning.
Matthew Schanck, chairman of the Maritime Search and Rescue Council, told The Times: “Looking at the extreme weather conditions, if it’s a waterspout, which it appears to be, it’s what I would class as a black swan event.
“And if the waterspout ends up dumping a load of that water onto the vessel, it’s going to cause significant damage.”
Extremely rare and unpredictable weather patterns that have serious impacts – like this waterspout – are known as “black swan events”.
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Italian police divers on an inflatable boat near the dive site Credit: PA
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CCTV footage showed the boat’s mast swaying before it capsized and sank
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Italian fire crew returns to Porticello port todayCredit: PA
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Divers explore the waters near the wreck on Tuesday
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: HIS Education