Mike Lynch yacht sinking latest: British tech entrepreneur’s body recovered

The body of British tech magnate Mike Lynch was retrieved on Thursday from the wreck of a yacht that sank earlier this week off Sicily during a tempest.

Lynch’s 18-year daughter Hannah is still missing.

Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judith Bloomer, Christopher Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo have also been identified.

The search operation to find the missing has been described as “complex” from the offset, with the boat sitting 50m below the surface of the sea.

Debris and furniture has cluttered the narrow passageways of the yacht, with divers only having 10 minutes underwater before they could suffer from nausea, known as ‘the bends’.

Fire crews from the Vigili del Fuoco said they have been accessing the vessel through natural entrances, without making openings.

Remotely controlled underwater vehicles have been used, with naval units and cave divers also taking part in the search, the Italian Coastguard has said.

Salvatore Cocina, the head of Sicily’s civil protection agency, confirmed that the fifth body had been recovered on Thursday, following the recovery of four others on Wednesday.

Identities of the bodies have not been confirmed by authorities, despite local and international media reporting some had been identified.

Searches resumed on Thursday morning, with Mr Cocina saying there will be an investigation in due course, but the priority is finding the final missing passenger.

The ship’s captain, James Cutfield, was reportedly questioned by authorities for two hours as they began speaking to all crew members.

The fifth body located by Italian search teams has been recovered from the sunken Bayesian yacht and brought to shore.

A fire service boat with flashing blue lights returned with a blue body bag to Porticello at just after 8.45am local time on Thursday.

With the Bayesian lying on her side 50 metres underneath the now gentle waters of the Mediterranean, mystery still surrounds how the 56-metre superyacht, sank in the typhoon off the port of Porticello.

Remotely controlled underwater vehicles and cave divers are looking to raise the yacht, which experts will examine in the coming days.

It will take weeks for Ambrogio Cartosio, the chief prosecutor of Termini Imerese, and his team to establish whether the sinking of the Bayesian was down to human error, an unpredictable weather event or whether anyone is liable.

They have said they will interview the survivors in the coming days – some of whom were pictured leaving the Domina Zagarella hotel in Santa Flavia, which has become the headquarters for survivors, police and rescuers.

My colleague Barney Davis takes a look at some of the key unanswered questions in this report:

The search will resume for the remaining person missing after a luxury yacht sank in a storm off the coast of Sicily following the discovery of five bodies inside the wreck, reports Ellie Ng.

Salvatore Cocina, the head of Sicily’s civil protection agency, confirmed that of the five bodies found on Wednesday, only four had been recovered, and the whereabouts of the missing sixth person remain unknown.

Identities of the recovered bodies have not been confirmed by authorities, despite local and international media reporting some had been identified. 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”.

He said searches will resume on Thursday morning, and that there will be an investigation in due course, but the priority is finding the missing.

An Italian doctor at the hospital where British tourist Charlotte Emsley and her one-year-old daughter were taken said the mother held her baby above the waves after the yacht sank.

Dr Domenico Cipolla, of Di Cristina Children’s Hospital in Palermo, told the PA news agency: “The child and the mother went to the hotel near Porticello on Tuesday, they are both in a good condition.

“Obviously the mother and the husband were so shaken by what has happened, it was a tragedy for them.

“She told me that two minutes after falling asleep with her baby they were in the water, she did not understand how this happened, it went dark. Her partner was not with her, he was in another room.

“She held the child high in her arms above the waves, for a few seconds the baby was in the water but she saved her.”

Hatches and doors left open overnight on the superyacht Bayesian may have caused it to sink in Italy, a sailing expert has said.

Sam Jefferson, editor of magazine Sailing Today, believes the vessel’s huge mast is also likely to have contributed to the deadly event.

It is believed the ship was struck by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout.

Weather records show temperatures reached around 33C the day before the sinking, which may have led to the vessel’s occupants wanting air to flow through while they slept.

Mr Jefferson told the PA news agency: “I would have said that the boat got hit very hard by the wind, it was pinned over on its side.

“I imagine all the doors were open because it was hot, so there were enough hatches and doors open that it filled with water very quickly and sank like that.

“The reason it got pinned over so hard was because the mast is huge. It acted almost like a sail. (It) pushed the boat hard over on its side. (The boat) filled with water before it could right.

“This is all speculation, but that’s the only logical explanation.”

Mr Jefferson added that such incidents are “incredibly rare”, describing the chances of a yacht being hit by a waterspout as “minuscule”.

The yacht’s aluminium mast measures 72 metres, making it one of the largest in the world among sailing yachts.

Karsten Borner, the captain of another yacht which was near Bayesian, told news agency Reuters he witnessed the ship go “flat on the water, and then down”.

Salvo Cocina, of Sicily’s civil protection agency, said: “They were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”