Four bodies have been recovered from the wreckage of the Bayesian superyacht two of which were confirmed as British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his teenage daughter, Hannah, according to a report. The bodies of 59-year-old Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter were found inside one of the yacht’s cabins and brought ashore on Wednesday.
Search teams made the heartbreaking discovery on Wednesday afternoon while combing through the wreckage of the Bayesian, which sank off the coast of Sicily after being struck by a rare “black swan” waterspout on Monday morning. The bodies were brought ashore and placed into a tent before being transferred to a waiting ambulance, The Telegraph reported.
Grim Discovery as All Confirmed Dead
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Still missing are Morgan Stanley chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy, and U.S. citizens Chris Morvillo and his jewelry designer wife, Neda Morvillo. All are now feared dead. The body of one crew member, chef Recaldo Thomas, was found on Monday.
Diving teams were also seen bringing a green body bag back to the port, where several emergency service personnel were on standby.
Italian fire officials described the search for the missing passengers as a “lengthy and complicated” operation.
The sunken ship rests on its side approximately 50 meters underwater, with interior areas blocked by furniture and debris.
Due to the vessel’s depth, divers have only around 10 minutes of air remaining to search the wreckage before needing to ascend to the surface.
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The unexpected incident occurred while 59-year-old Lynch, often dubbed “Britain’s Bill Gates,” was on a “victory trip” celebrating his success in the U.S. fraud trial related to the £8.3 billion sale of his tech company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard.
In a separate tragic event, Stephen Chamberlain, the former vice president of finance at Autonomy and Lynch’s co-defendant, was killed after being struck by a car while jogging in Cambridgeshire on Saturday.
Heartbreaking Scene at the Port
Salvo Cocina, the director of Sicily’s civil protection agency, confirmed that two bodies were found in the wreck on Wednesday and have already been brought to the surface by divers. “On behalf of myself and my colleagues, I would like to express my deepest sympathy to the families of the victims and express our condolences and closeness to them at this difficult time,” he said.
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The challenging operation has been hindered by several issues, including debris blocking access to cabins and thick silt obscuring visibility through windows.
It was revealed today that the captain of the superyacht, New Zealander James Cutfield, was “questioned for more than two hours” by Italian prosecutors last night.
The “highly respected” seafarer was interrogated by the Termini Imerese Public Prosecutor’s Office as part of their investigation into the incident. It is expected that other passengers and crew members will also be interviewed as part of the inquiry.
Speaking to Italian journalists from the hospital the morning after the incident, Cutfield said, “We didn’t see it coming.”
The investigation will examine whether the crew had left hatches open, potentially causing the boat to sink within minutes.
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The yacht was carrying 10 crew members and 12 passengers when it was struck by tornado-strength winds during a violent thunderstorm at 5 a.m. on Monday, August 19.
The impact was so powerful that the vessel sank beneath the waves, vanishing completely in “just 60 seconds,” leaving those on board in a desperate race for survival.
While 15 people managed to reach safety, including a British mother who bravely kept her baby daughter afloat in the pitch-dark waters, seven people remained unaccounted for.
