Two bodies found in the wreck of Mike Lynch’s superyacht have been confirmed as the tech mogul and his daughter Hannah.
Search teams made the tragic discovery today while scouring through the wreckage of the Bayesian, which sank off the coast of Sicily after being hit by a ‘black swan’ waterspout on Monday morning.
The Chief of Civil Protection later confirmed the bodies had been identified as Mr Lynch and his daughter, before announcing that two more bodies had been found and are about to be recovered by divers.
The freak incident came as the 59-year-old was enjoying a ‘victory trip’ to celebrate winning his US fraud trial over the £8.3billion sale of his tech firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard.
Four other guests have been missing since the tragedy, with specialist divers desperately trying to access the boat amid hope survivors could be alive in air pockets inside the vessel.
Those who remain unaccounted for are Morgan Stanley boss Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy and American citizens Chris Morvillo and his jewellery designer wife Neda Morvillo.
The body of one crew member, chef Recaldo Thomas, was found on Monday by search teams.
It comes as:
The news came after a marked increase in activity at the port in the last two hours, with more boats than normal going to and from the site.
An ambulance siren could be heard threading its way through the streets of Porticello, and was believed to have joined the large group of emergency vehicles from police, coastguard and the fire service, ringing the tiny port.
At 2.58pm UK time a fire service boat bearing what appeared to be at least one body bag came into shore.
Rescue workers lined the shore as the boat drew alongside, with a coastguard vessel pulling in front to block the view of media so the body could be removed with dignity.
The body bag was then taken to a waiting ambulance in the harbour.
Salvo Cocina, the director of Sicily’s civil protection agency, confirmed two bodies were found in the wreck today and that divers have already brought them to the surface.
He would not confirm the identity of the victims or whether they were male or female.
He said ‘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.’
The challenging operation has been hampered by issues, including access to cabins being blocked by debris and thick silt preventing divers from being able to see inside windows.
The discovery of the bodies would diminish hopes that the remaining four missing passengers will be found alive as the rescue mission enters its third day.
It was revealed today that last night the captain of the superyacht, New Zealander James Cutfield, had been ‘questioned for more than two hours’ by Italian prosecutors.
The ‘well respected’ seafarer was quizzed by the Termini Imerese Public Prosecutor’s Office as part of their investigation into what happened. It is expected they will also speak to the other passengers and crew members as part of their probe.
Speaking in hospital the morning after the incident, Mr Cutfield told Italian journalists ‘we didn’t see it coming’.
Part of the investigation will look into whether hatches had been left open by crew and whether these caused the boat to sink in a matter of minutes.
The captain’s brother, Mark Cutfield, said he was a ‘very good sailor’ and was ‘very well respected’ in the Mediterranean. He told the NZ Herald that James is currently in hospital but is ‘okay’ and does not have injuries that are ‘too dramatic’.
According to the Giornale Di Sicilia, prosecutors questioned Mr Cutfield for several hours as they tried to reconstruct the Bayesian’s final moments before it capsized and as it sank to the seabed.
The yacht had been carrying 10 crew members and 12 passengers when it was hit by tornado-speed winds during a severe thunderstorm at 5am on Monday, August 19.
Such was the force of the impact, the boat sank beneath the waves, completely disappearing in ‘just 60 seconds’ and leaving those on board in a race to save themselves.
While 15 people were able to make it to safety, including a British mother who heroically held her baby daughter afloat in the pitch-black waters, seven people were unaccounted for.
The body of one crew member, Canadian-Antiguan chef Recaldo Thomas who was the on-board cook, was discovered hours later as a rescue operation got underway.
But in the days that have followed there has been no sign of six other missing people and hopes that survivors would be found have dwindled and was followed by the grim reports more bodies had been found this afternoon.
The search operation has been beset with problems, with floating debris blocking the narrow corridors of the vessel, which is almost completely intact and lying on its side on the seabed 164ft (50m) below the surface.
The wreck is so deep that divers can only spend 10 minutes on the seabed before having to return to the surface for their own safety.
Today a new team of Italian firefighters, who have special tanks that allow them to stay underwater for longer and more experience at that depth, arrived to help with the search.
Divers had forced their way into the ship by drilling a hole through a 3cm-thick porthole today, with claims they had reached the ‘master cabin’ where Mr Lynch and his wife Angela Bacares had been staying during the trip.
Italian outlet Giornale Di Sicilia reported that a remote-controlled robot has been brought in to assist the search teams.
The ‘robot’ is capable of operating on the seabed up to an altitude of 300 meters and can continue for between 6 and 7 hours.
The device equipped with advanced technology that allows it to investigate the seabed and record detailed videos and images which will be used in the prosecutor’s investigation.