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A diver who led the search for the missing bodies on Bayesian wreck said that finding Mike Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah was the hardest.
Giuseppe Petrone, chief of the Italian Firefighters Dive Team, said: “It was such a relief to have found her after almost five days. The tension had been unbearable until then.”
Mike Lynch’s wife did not want to leave the scene of the Bayesian wreck without her family, the captain of a boat near the sinking has said.
Karsten Borner, the captain of the Sir Robert Baden Powell, which helped to rescue the 15 survivors of the disaster in Sicily, told People that Angela Bacares “didn’t want to leave because her husband and her daughter were still down”.
British technology tycoon Mr Lynch and one of the daughters he has with Ms Bacares, Hannah, were among the seven people who were killed after his superyacht capsized and went down on 19 August within minutes of being hit by a pre-dawn storm.
The captain’s comments come as three crew members of the British-flagged vessel – captain James Cutfield, ship engineer Tim Parker Eaton and sailor Matthew Griffith – are now all under investigation for manslaughter and shipwreck.
Giant masts, moon pools and pole explorer pods: How the world of yachts got supersized
From the sheer size of the mast (74 metres, roughly the size of seven two-storey houses stacked on top of each other) to the expense (Bayesian was put up for sale in 2014 with an asking price of $30m, which is around £23m), to the sheer luxury (the interiors were by Remi Tessier, the designer behind Claridge’s new penthouse), it’s a world few people normally get to see.
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Giant masts, moon pools and explorer pods: How the world of yachts got supersized
The sinking of Mike Lynch’s ‘unsinkable’ sailing vessel was not only a heartbreaking tragedy, but also gave us a rare glimpse into the superyachting fraternity. Here, Boat International’s Lucy Dunn looks at a group that is both secretive and innovative, and asks how such a high-spec sailing yacht could have sunk at all…
Blackbox sheds light on tragic final minutes of billionaire’s superyacht trip
It was supposed to be a summer celebration.
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch had gathered his tried and trusted lawyers who had been with him every step of the way helping him emerge unscathed from a gruelling 13-year legal battle. Twelve guests had flown into the picturesque Italian port of Porticello, near Palermo from the UK, the US, Canada, New Zealand and Ireland, to mark the end of the fraud trial that had consumed much of their lives.
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Mike Lynch net worth: How the billionaire made his money
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch was among seven people who died after the luxury superyacht Bayesian sank off the coast of Sicily early on Monday morning
The 59-year-old is known for founding Invoke Capital and Autonomy Corporation and had been in the headlines after he was cleared of charges in a high-profile fraud case.
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No tornado alert in place at the time of sinking
Maritime director of western Sicily Rear Admiral Raffaele Macauda said there was nothing to suggest such an extreme situation would arise.
He told a press conference that there was no tornado alert in place at the time.
Mr Cammarano added that the yacht had been hit by a downburst, which are powerful winds that descend from a thunderstorm and spread out quickly once they hit the ground.
Officials said they would be looking at how it could so badly affect the Bayesian, and not other nearby vessels.
Bayesian’s huge mast may have contributed to its demise
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 – the tallest in the world, at 72 metres – is also likely to have contributed to the deadly event.
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.”
Diver who led search recalls ‘unbearable’ tension in search for Hannah
A diver who led the search for Mike Lynch and his guests onboard the yacht Bayesian said that his 18-year-old daughter Hannah was the hardest to find, as he recalled the “unbearable” tension facing his team.
“The yacht was on its right hand side. All of the cabins had been invaded with floating debris, mattresses, sheets, wardrobes,” he told MailOnline.
“It was due to this large amount of floating debris that the operation progressed with difficulty.
“The cabins were dark and there was barely any visibility, so as a result the environment was hostile and the situation was getting more difficult.
“She [Hannah] was the furthest away, we are talking about a situation where to advance just a metre took four or five dives.
“It was such a relief to have found her after almost five days. The tension had been unbearable until then.”
Asylum rescue charities hit out at ‘double standard’ in media and official resources
Charities dedicated to rescuing asylum-seekers in the Mediterranean have hit out at the “double standard” highlighted by the media coverage and resources given to the Bayesian search effort.
“For us, every death in the Mediterranean is one too many, no matter where they come from or how much money they make,” the organisation Sea-Eye, who recently rescued 262 people in the Mediterranean, said in a statement to The Guardian.
They added: “Sadly, it makes a difference in the media, in our society and in politics, who is drowning. We have noticed that the coverage of the situation in the Mediterranean, of tragedies or of our rescues in recent months has not been nearly as extensive as in the case of the Sicilian shipwreck in recent days.”
Days after the Bayesian sank, distress calls relating to a dinghy carrying 43 people in the Mediterranean were ignored and the vessel was left in peril for more than 24 hours until the charity Sea-Watch got there “just in time” to rescue those onboard and in the surrounding waters, the organisation alleged.
“For the Italian and European authorities, there are Shipwrecks and then there are shipwrecks, one capitalised and the other lowercase, one immediately rescued and the other abandoned to its fate,” Sea-Watch said, adding: “There was no rescue effort by the authorities. That’s no coincidence; it’s the EU’s double standard.”
Footage shows moment Bayesian yacht engulfed by storm
Bayesian ‘was one of the safest boats in the world’
The Bayesian was built in 2008 by Perini Navi, an Italian luxury yacht maker. It featured the world’s tallest aluminium mast, measuring 72 metres (236 feet).
Giovanni Costantino, chief executive of the Italian Sea Group – which owns Perini – said the yacht was “one of the safest boats in the world” and basically unsinkable.
Captain of nearby boat says he turned on engine to avoid collision with Bayesian in storm
The captain of a nearby boat has recalled that, when the winds surged, he had turned on the engine to keep control of his vessel and avoid a collision with the Bayesian, which had been anchored alongside him.
“We managed to keep the ship in position and after the storm was over, we noticed that the ship behind us was gone,” Karsten Borner said.
The other boat “went flat on the water, and then down,” he added. He said his crew then found some of the survivors on a life raft and took them on board before the coast guard picked them up.
Source: independent.co.uk
