LAST UPDATE | 22 Aug
DIVERS SEARCHING THE wreck of a superyacht that sank off Sicily have recovered the body of British entrepreneur Mike Lynch.
His 18-year-old daughter Hannah is still missing.
The Italian Coastguard confirmed that the sixth and final person yet to be found is a woman.
One body had been found in the hours after the Bayesian went down in a storm early on Monday morning – confirmed to that of Canadian-Antiguan Recaldo Thomas, the ship’s chef – and six others were reported missing, including technology tycoon Mike Lynch and his teenage daughter. Five of these bodies have now been found.
Identities of the recovered bodies have not been officially confirmed by authorities, despite local and international media reporting some had been identified.
Body bags were seen being taken to the port of Porticello yesterday afternoon, with the process of bringing the fifth body to shore being described by 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.
A decision on whether to raise the sunken yacht from the seabed is “not on the agenda”, but will be in the future, a spokesman from the Italian Coastguard has said.
Vincenzo Zagarola told PA: “This is not a topic on the agenda. It will be, but not now.”
He also said that the Italian Coastguard’s working theory is still that the missing woman is inside the boat.
Among those also named as missing were Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah; Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer; his wife, Judy Bloomer; Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo; and his wife, Neda Morvillo.
In a statement confirming their parents’ deaths, the Bloomer family described the couple as “incredible people and an inspiration to many”.
“Our parents were incredible people and an inspiration to many, but first and foremost they were focused on and loved their family and spending time with their new grandchildren.
“Together for five decades, our only comfort is that they are still together now.
Of the 22 passengers and crew on board, 15 – including Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares – were rescued after escaping onto a lifeboat.
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.
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.
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 yesterday 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.
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, Cutfield’s brother Mark said his sibling was a “very good sailor” with eight years of experience working abroad on luxury yachts.
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 yesterday 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.
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.
Lynch, originally from Essex, is the son of Irish emigrants to the UK, who are reported to have worked as a nurse and a fireman.
After studying physics, mathematics, and biochemistry at Cambridge University, he specialised in adaptive pattern recognition, a field which his most famous startup specialised in.
His yacht, the Bayesian, is named after the 18th-century statistician Thomas Bale, whose work helped to inspire Lynch in his own field.
Lynch’s mother hailed from Treacy Park in Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary where locals told The Journal this week that the deceased was always someone who “identified with the town”, having spent several summers in Carrick as a youngster.
He took a close interest as an adult in the town, where he is understood to have provided support and consultation to businesses trying to attract inward private investment and state funding to the area. He was also credited with making a donation to the Carrick Davins GAA club to help them build facilities in previous years.
The boat trip was a celebration of 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 Bloomer appeared at trial as a defence witness for Lynch, while media reports suggest the pair are close friends.
In a separate incident, 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.
With reporting by PA and AFP
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