Divers and an underwater drone are currently searching for six individuals, including British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, who are believed to be trapped after their luxury superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily. Also among the missing are Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International, and his wife, Judy.
Police divers resumed the search on Tuesday afternoon after the yacht, named Bayesian, sank. The British-flagged yacht was anchored with 10 crew members and 12 passengers aboard when it was struck by a waterspout, a mini-tornado occurring over water, early Monday morning. Fifteen people, including a woman and her one-year-old baby, were rescued, while the body of the yacht’s chef, who was reportedly from Antigua, has been recovered.
The passengers were guests of Lynch, who is referred to as “Britain’s Bill Gates,” celebrating his acquittal in a major fraud case in the United States. In June, Lynch was found not guilty of fraud and conspiracy in a U.S. federal lawsuit related to Hewlett Packard’s $11 billion acquisition of his company, Autonomy Corp.
The search mission is taking place approximately 50 meters below the surface, necessitating special precautions and complicating the operation. Rescue teams are working in 12-minute shifts, which impede their efforts to access the wreckage. It is believed that the missing individuals are trapped in cabins that were blocked by furniture displaced during the severe storm.
The yacht was anchored about a kilometer from the shore when a storm rolled in shortly before 4 a.m. on Monday. Authorities believe that the vessel was hit by a waterspout and sank rapidly. Surveillance footage from coastal cameras showed the yacht’s 75-meter mast braving the storm before disappearing in less than a minute.
Karsten Borner, captain of the ship Sir Robert Baden Powell, which rescued the 15 survivors, stated that he could see the yacht’s mast just before it sank. “A moment later, it was gone,” he said. The survivors reported that the yacht quickly flattened on the water and sank within two minutes.
Rescue teams are now searching for openings to access the blocked cabins within the wreck. They have not yet been able to gain entry but are diligently working to locate the missing individuals. Charlotte Golunski, one of the survivors of the incident, recounted how she briefly lost her grip on her daughter Sofia in the waves but managed to keep her above water until a rescue boat was launched.
Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, also survived, but their daughter Hannah is among the missing. The yacht, built in 2008 by the Italian firm Perini Navi, was available for charter and was known for its massive mast, one of the tallest in the world.