‘BRITISH Bill Gates’ and his daughter are feared dead after the superyacht the couple were on sank off the coast of Sicily.
Businessman Mike Lynch, 59, and daughter Hannah, 18, are two of four Britons still missing hours after the £14m luxury yacht Bayesian capsized in a tornado.
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British businessman Mike Lynch reportedly after the ship sankCredit: Alamy
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Lynch with his wife Angela Bacares who was also on the wrecked yacht Credit: © Desmond O’Neill Features:-+44(0)7092 235465
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Bayesian is 56 meters long and costs £166,000 a week to hireCredit: EPA
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Sicilian fire crews were out searching for water todayCredit: PA
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An ambulance with health workers waiting at the dock Credit: Zuma Press
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A survivor leaves Coast Guard headquarters todayCredit: Reuters
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The ship is sailed by a crew of 10 with 12 passengers Credit: EPA
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The ship sank near the coast of the Italian island at around 5 am local time, and chef Ricardo Thomas is believed to be among the missing, the BBC reports.
It is assumed that the body found was his.
The ship was reportedly moored outside the harbor at Porticello, east of Palermo, when the storm struck, with witnesses describing a plume of water bursting the 72-metre mast.
Lynch’s family, lawyers and employees were on board when the ship sank.
They were celebrating the businessman’s recent triumph over fraud charges that had him facing 25 years in prison in the US, The Telegraph reported.
The tech tycoon made his fortune by selling his software company Autonomy to US computer giant Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2011 for $11bn (£8.6bn).
But an intense legal battle following the high-profile acquisition has loomed over Lynch for more than a decade, leading to his transfer to the US in chains last year.
He and his wife Angela Bacares’ net worth was recently estimated at $1.1bn (£852m) last year in the Sunday Times Rich List 2023.
Bacares is among those who were saved.
She told doctors that her husband and daughter were still missing, La Repubblica reported.
Bacares said that at 4 a.m. the ship tilted and they woke up, initially thinking everything was fine.
But there was a scene of confusion when the glass broke and the Bayesian began to sink.
Bacares was seen in hospital today using a wheelchair and wearing bandages.
Now a frantic search has been launched for the missing six – consisting of four Britons and two Americans, writes the Italian newspaper Ansa.
The lifeless body of one victim, a Canadian cook who was part of the crew, has already been pulled out of the Mediterranean, reports ANSA.
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Divers are now searching the wreckCredit: Ruckas
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A sailor photographed the Bayesian just hours before it capsized Credit: Twitter/@Khorakhane100
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British tourist Charlotte Golunski saved her one-year-old baby in the horror yacht disaster
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Lynch is an entrepreneur who has founded and sold technology and software companies. He was awarded an OBE for services to business in 2006.
He was extradited to the US on fraud charges in 2023 and a judge set bail at £79m, before later being acquitted at trial.
The Sun has sought comment from Invoke Capital, one of Lynch’s firms.
The yacht is believed to have been flooded after the tornado struck off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo, just before 5am local time on Monday morning.
At least 15 people were rescued by a Dutch captain who rescued people from the sea after noticing the Bayesian disappearing, Giornale Di Sicilia reported.
Helicopters, divers, patrol boats and firefighters are helping in a desperate search of the area today.
An expert team of divers has already managed to locate the vessel 160 feet below water on the seabed.
The chef’s body was tragically found underwater next to the wreck by divers, reports Corriere Della Sera.
Bayesian’s captain, Kiwi James Catfield, said they “didn’t see” the storm coming and hit the ship, la Repubblica reported.
A warning is currently issued in Sicily due to strong winds.
Almost all of the 22 passengers and crew were said to be in their cabins and rooms when the weather changed.
A one-year-old British girl named Sophia was rescued by her mother in the sea after drowning before being rushed to hospital.
Mum Charlotte Golunski spoke about the frantic rescue, telling Giornale di Sicilia: “I lost my baby in the sea for two seconds and then immediately hugged her again amid the fury of the waves.
“I held her tight while the sea was stormy, many were screaming.
“I shouted for help, but all I could hear around me were the screams of others.
“Luckily the lifeboat inflated and 11 of us managed to get on board.”
Dad James Emsilie was also on board at the time of the horrific ordeal and was unable to find his family after being swept away by the sea.
I held her tight, close to me, while the sea was stormy. Many screamed
Charlotte
Charlotte managed to swim to one of the rafts where she and her daughter were taken to safety along with 11 other people.
Bayesian sails under the British flag, according to a Facebook post on Sunday night.
The ship left the Sicilian port of Milazzo last Wednesday and was last tracked east of Palermo last night, according to the tracking app Vesselfinder.
The charterers said there were 12 guests and 10 crew members on board at the time.
Many of them managed to escape from their rooms before being forced into the sea, writes Corriere Della Sera.
The yacht was said to have started sinking just offshore with the anchor still down.
Local fishing crews quickly spotted the sinking ship and managed to help raise the anchor along with two other sailboats, local media reported.
The captain of the other boat, Karsten Borner, said his own vessel had to be moved to maneuver past the Bayesian in strong winds.
He said: “We managed to keep the ship in position, and after the storm ended, we noticed that the ship behind us had disappeared.”
The ship is operated by Camper and Nicholsons International.
A company spokesperson told the BBC that they are “dealing with a situation on one of the ships [their] managed vessels”.
Bayesian is owned by Revtom, a company registered in the Isle of Man – according to Equasis, a marine data service.
BBC Verify reported that the boat was tied to Lynch’s wife, with Bacares listed as the sole legal owner of the company.
The boat is also a £166,000-a-week boat.
Who is Mike Lynch?
By Georgie English
Businessman Mike Lynch is believed to have been missing for hours after his £14 million luxury yacht capsized in a tornado off the coast of Sicily.
The tech tycoon, dubbed “Britain’s Bill Gates”, was one of 22 people sailing on the £166,000-a-week ship, the Telegraph reported this afternoon.
Lynch, 59, sold Autonomy Corporation – a technology company for $11 billion to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
He was also involved with Invoke Capital and cyber security firm Darktrace.
He was awarded an OBE for services to business in 2006.
Born in Ilford, Lynch had a fireman father from County Cork and a nurse mother from County Tipperary.
Away from work, Mike is married to his wife Angela Bacares and the couple has two children.
In 2023, the Sunday Times Rich List put the couple’s worth at £852 million.
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.
He was extradited to the US on fraud charges as early as 2023, and a judge set his bail at £79m.
US marshals took Lynch into custody at Heathrow, put him in chains and put him on a United Airlines flight.
It did have a few things going for it, though.
The nature of the case led to a tedious and drawn-out trial, including painstaking parades of jargon-filled emails, reports and spreadsheets, leaving jurors glassy-eyed.
One was even fired for repeatedly falling asleep.
Lynch argued that any questionable activity was completely irrelevant in the context of a successful business bringing in hundreds of millions a year.
While his lawyers argued that the books had been approved by external accountants and that, by British standards, the transactions in question had been properly accounted for.
Lynch was used as the last witness and instead of going “right for the throat,” as his lead attorney Brian Heberlig put it, prosecutors simply “went through the chronology of the documents, no probing questions.” The jury agreed.
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Search helicopters fly over the area in search of survivorsCredit: PA
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CCTV caught strong winds battering Sicily overnightCredit: Rail News
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15 people were rescued from the sinking Credits: PA
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