British tech tycoon Mike Lynch is among the five bodies recovered from the wreck of the £30 million superyacht that sank in a storm off the coast of Sicily.
Morgan Stanley chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judith, Mr Lynch’s lawyer Christopher Morvillo, and his wife Neda have also been identified.
Mr Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah is still missing, Italian government official Massimo Mariani confirmed this afternoon.
Sicily’s Chief of Civil Protection Salvo Cocina said yesterday he believed the Oxford bound teen was among the bodies recovered.
The Italian Coastguard is working on the theory she is still on the vessel, although Mr Mariani said there is a possibility she could have been thrown into the sea as the boat sank.
The fire rescue service said it would ‘need a crystal ball’ to know when they would find ‘the next body’ as dive teams can take up to 24 hours just to move one metre due to the difficulty of moving around inside the wreckage.
A source close to the operation said 59-year-old Mr Lynch’s body was brought ashore this morning.
A fire service boat with flashing blue lights returned this morning with a blue body bag to Porticello at just after 8.45am local time.
It brings the total number of confirmed deaths to six after the body of Recaldo Thomas was discovered on the day of the sinking.
It comes as:
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, 59, is among the five bodies recovered from the wreck of the £30 million superyacht that sank in a storm off the coast of Sicily
Christopher Morvillo and his wife Neda (top image), Morgan Stanley chairman Jonathan Bloomer (bottom left), and his wife Judith (bottom right) have also been identified
It brings the total number of confirmed deaths to six after the body of Recaldo Thomas (pictured) was discovered on the day of the sinking
Rescue personnel work at the scene today where luxury yacht Bayesian sank off the coast of Porticello, near the Sicilian city of Palermo
Divers found five bodies in the wreck yesterday (Pictured: A rescue boat with rescue personnel on board resume search operations this morning)
People embrace at the scene where a luxury yacht sank, as divers continue to search for 18-year-old Hannah Lynch
Brent Hoberman, a friend of Mr Lynch’s for 28 years, says his death is ‘unbelievably tragic’ and his friends and family had been ‘hoping for a miracle’.
He told Sky News: ‘We knew it was unlikely but you still hold out hope.
‘It’s just so unbelievably tragic for him to go through what he went through over the last 12 years, defending his name and not really living a full life, to now for his death to be confirmed is obviously incredibly sad.’
He said he hoped close friends were rallying around My Lynch’s 57-year-old wife Angela Bacares – who survived the tragedy – to give her ‘courage and strength’.
In a further twist of fate, it emerged this afternoon Mr Lynch had put the doomed vessel up for sale in March but withdrew it from the market after he was acquitted in one of the biggest ever fraud cases, according to industry sources.
The Telegraph reported he was going to review the decision to sell in the autumn after his summer trip to the Mediterranean.
A decision on whether to raise the luxury yacht to the surface is currently ‘not on the agenda’ but Italian Coastguard spokesman Vincenzo Zagarola said: ‘It will be, but not now.’
But a salvage chief has argued the only way of finding out why the Bayesian sank is to lift it to the surface.
Nick Barke, head of salvage operations at Boats.co.uk, said that the ‘only real way of knowing’ why the yacht sank will be to lift it to the surface, but that would be ‘expensive and complicated process’, likely to involve a crane barge.
He said divers would attach straps to the boat before it is lifted upright and then hauled out of the water.
He predicted this would be ‘time-consuming’ as ‘they have to do it in such a way that they don’t damage anything too badly.’
Search teams made the tragic discoveries of the other four bodies yesterday while scouring through the ruins of luxury sailboat Bayesian, which is resting on the seabed at a depth of 164ft.
The fifth body was discovered late last night, but dive teams were unable to bring it to shore before night fell.
Luca Cari, spokesperson for the fire rescue service, told the Associated Press ‘we would need a crystal ball to know when we’ll be able to find the next body’.
‘It’s very difficult to move inside the wreckage. Moving just one meter can take up to 24 hours,’ Cari said.
The Royal Academy of Engineering paid tribute to its ‘mentor, donor and former council member’ Mr Lynch following his death, while technology industry group TechUK called him a ‘hugely significant and pioneering figure’.
Mr Lynch was also a member of the Create The Change fundraising board, set up by Cancer Research UK and which helped fund the building of the Francis Crick Institute.
Mr Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah is still missing, Italian government official Massimo Mariani (left) confirmed this afternoon
Royal submarine captain Ryan Ramsey says those taking part in the recovery operation would be under ‘huge amounts of psychological stress’ (Rescue personnel pictured this morning)
A police car escorts an ambulance carrying the fifth body recovered from Porticello Harbour on the fourth day of the search
TODAY: Salvatore Cocina, the head of Sicily’s civil protection agency, said searches are resuming this morning, and there will be an investigation in due course
Dive teams continue to search the waters off the Sicilian coast for a fourth day this morning
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch with his wife Angela Bacares, who survived the disaster
Mr Lynch’s attorney Christopher Morvillo (pictured) and his wife Neda are also among those who have died
An ambulance carries the fifth body recovered from the waters this morning off the coast of Porticello
A boat carrying a dive team heads out to the site of the Bayesian on the fourth day of the search this morning
Its chairman Lord John Browne said: ‘Mike Lynch should be remembered as the person who catalysed a breed of deep tech entrepreneurs in the UK.
‘His ideas and his personal vision were a powerful contribution to science and technology in both Britain and globally.
‘I send my condolences to those close to him. We have lost a human being of great ability.’
Mr Bloomer was previously an honorary treasurer at NSPCC.
Today, the children’s charity’s chairman Neil Berkett paid tribute to the 70-year-old and his wife Judy.
‘We remember Jonathan from his time with us as a very kind individual with a great sense of humour and Judy as formidable and passionate,’ he said.
‘We are so grateful for everything they did for children and the NSPCC and our thoughts are with their family, friends and colleagues at this desperately sad time.’
Royal submarine captain Ryan Ramsey says those taking part in the recovery operation would be under ‘huge amounts of psychological stress’.
‘It’s been exceptionally stressful for them both mentally and physically,’ he told Sky News.
‘If you take into account the pressures that they’re operating under, those are considerable.
‘It’s dark. It’s a platform that they’ve never been inside before, and they’re having to recover bodies. That’s huge amounts of psychological stress for those for those divers.’
The Bayesian sank after being hit by a ‘black swan’ waterspout on Monday at 5am.
Body bags were seen being taken to the port of Porticello on Wednesday afternoon, with the process of bringing the fifth body to shore being described by Mr Cocina as ‘ongoing’.
As the body bags were taken back to the port, dozens of emergency services staff were waiting, and one bag was seen being put in the back of an ambulance.
The body of Canadian-Antiguan national Mr Thomas, who was working as a chef on the Bayesian superyacht, was recovered at the scene of the sinking on Monday.
The Bayesian (pictured in an undated handout photo) overturned during a severe thunderstorm on Monday morning
Rescue workers look at the plans of the the Bayesian as they organise a search operation
Of the 22 passengers and crew on board, 15 – including Mr Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares – were rescued after escaping onto a lifeboat.
The head of Palermo Emergency Medical Services, Dr Fabio Genco, told the BBC that there had been ‘apocalyptic’ scenes in the aftermath of the sinking.
He said: ‘The word that the mother and all the injured kept repeating was the ‘darkness’ during the shipwreck.
‘They spoke of about five minutes, from three to five minutes, from the moment the boat was lifted, raised by the waves of the sea until it sank.
‘There were truly apocalyptic scenes where everyone was searching and hoping to find the people who at that moment were not present, just missing.’
He added: ‘Unfortunately in the face of death and the face of life there is no difference between rich and poor, between nobles and commoners.’
Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation into why the superyacht sank – described as ‘unsinkable’ by a CEO of a boat manufacturing.
Giovanni Costantino, founder and CEO of The italian Sea Group, which owns the Perini Navi that built the Bayesian, blamed human error for the disaster.
He told Corriere della Sera: ‘The passengers reported something absurd, that the storm came unexpectedly, suddenly. That is not true. Everything was predictable.’
The Italian Sea Group has also dismissed speculation the enormous 264ft mast was to blame and says only a massive entry of water could have caused it to sink.
‘The controversies about the mast are sterile controversies because the mast, according to those who have seen it, is intact,’ they said.
‘The retractable keel stabilises the ship, but even without the keel completely out the ship is stable and only a massive entry of water could have caused the sinking which did not happen in a minute as someone wrote.’
The ship’s captain, James Cutfield, was reportedly quizzed by authorities for two hours as they began questioning all crew members.
Speaking to New Zealand media, Mr Cutfield’s brother Mark said his sibling was a ‘very good sailor’ with eight years of experience working abroad on luxury yachts
The captain of a yacht, the Sir Robert BP, who helped to rescue them, described how those aboard his vessel spotted the distress flare set off from a life raft.
The ship’s captain, James Cutfield, 51, was reportedly quizzed by authorities for two hours as they began questioning all crew members
The Bayesian sank after being hit by a ‘black swan’ waterspout on Monday at 5am (Pictured: A large waterspout on sea in Campina, Italy, on August 19)
The superyacht (pictured) was docked off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo, when it was hit by an over-sea tornado, known as a waterspout
Karsten Borner said his crew noticed the Bayesian had disappeared before a passenger spotted the flare.
He told Sky News: ‘We couldn’t see them any more and they disappeared from the radar, we were busy keeping our own ship sailing.
‘We couldn’t see the ship again so we were aware something was very wrong.’
He said it was only when the tender set out that they found the life raft.
Mr Borner continued: ‘It turned out to be the life raft, a 12-person life raft with 15 people inside including one baby.
‘They stepped over to our tender and we brought them back to our ship. There we took good care of them, gave them dry clothes, towels, blankets, tea and coffee and so on and took care of them.’
Inspections of the yacht’s internal hull took place on Wednesday morning.
A team of four British inspectors from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) also arrived in Porticello to look at the site of the sinking.
The MAIB is looking into what happened because the yacht Bayesian was flying a British flag, it is understood.
The Italian Coastguard said the MAIB is not involved in the search for the missing people, and that it has not been requested to assist.
A helicopter was drafted in to help the search effort, as divers from the local fire service were seen entering the water with torches attached to their headgear.
A police boat and divers were also seen entering the water on Wednesday afternoon.
Fire crews from the Vigili del Fuoco said they have been accessing the vessel through natural entrances, without making openings.
Remotely controlled underwater vehicles are being used, with naval units and cave divers also taking part in the search, the Italian Coastguard has said.
Bayesian was moored around half a mile off the coast of Porticello when it sank at about 5am local time on Monday as the area was hit by a storm.
Vincenzo Zagarola, of the Italian Coastguard, previously said the missing tourists were feared dead.
The wreckage of the Bayesian is resting on the seabed off the coast at a depth of 50 metres (164ft).
Fire crews described the operation as ‘complex’, with divers limited to 12-minute underwater shifts.
Survivors have been recuperating at a hotel complex in Porticello, where authorities were gathering witness statements.
The boat trip was a celebration of Mr Lynch’s acquittal in a fraud case in the US.
The businessman, who founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, was cleared in June of carrying out a massive fraud relating to its 11 billion US dollar (£8.64 billion) sale to US company Hewlett Packard.
The Financial Times reported that Mr Bloomer appeared at trial as a defence witness for Mr Lynch, while media reports suggest the pair are close friends.
In a separate incident, Mr Lynch’s co-defendant in his US fraud trial, Stephen Chamberlain, died after being hit by a car while out running in Cambridgeshire on Saturday.
