Divers searching the wreck of a £30million superyacht for survivors have finally gained access to the ‘master cabin’ where British tech tycoon Mike Lynch had been sleeping before it sank.
Rescue teams are working against the clock in a bid to find anyone alive inside the Bayesian, which sank off the coast of Sicily after being hit by a ‘black swan’ waterspout.
Desperate officials say they are still hoping there may be survivors trapped in air pockets inside the ship, with divers listening for ‘banging noises’ that may indicate signs of life and an underwater robot deployed to aid in the search.
Six people, including Mr Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter and the chairman of Morgan Stanley International, are believed to have been trapped in their cabins following the catastrophic incident at 5am on Monday morning.
The search operation to find them has been beset with problems, with floating debris blocking the narrow corridors of the vessel and the depth of the wreck meaning divers can only spend 10 minutes at the bottom before having to return.
A British investigation team has arrived on the island this morning, with experts attempting to determine exactly what caused the ship to sink so rapidly after witnesses claimed it went under the water in the space of just two minutes.
It comes as:
A total of 15 people, including a British mother and her baby daughter, dramatically escaped the sinking ship with moments to spare, plunging into the raging pitch-black sea during the storm before seeking shelter in a liferaft and awaiting rescue.
The yacht’s ‘well-respected’ captain, 51-year-old New Zealander James Cutfield, had remarked from his hospital bed they ‘didn’t see it coming’ in the darkness.
While the body of the ship’s cook, Recaldo Thomas, was found the same day, there has been no sign of the others who are missing, aside from disturbing reports that bodies had been seen by divers through portholes in the sunken ship.
A total of six people are still missing – Mr Lynch and his 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.
Efforts to get into the vessel, which is lying on its side and is almost completely intact, have been difficult though with the depth and nature of the yacht proving challenging.
At 164ft (50m) down, 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.
A new team of Italian firefighter divers who have experience in deep water environments have been drafted in to help,
It is hoped that they will be able to spend up to 20 minutes underwater at a time, having brought special tanks with them that allow them to stay under the surface for longer.
Meanwhile, frustrated divers on the scene have reportedly complained about floating debris blocking the narrow corridors and entrances inside.
The waterspout which caused the catastrophic capsizing of the Bayesian has been dubbed a ‘black swan’, by meteorological experts.
The term is used for rare weather events that are considered unpredictable and more severe than one could reasonably expect.
Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in the United States in 2005, is considered to be an example of this.
Waterspouts – which are essentially tornadoes that take place over water – are another example of a so-called ‘black swan’.
Michael Shanck, chair of the Maritime Search and Rescue Council, said that waterspouts
He said: ‘Waterspouts are rare but do happen.
‘They’re a black swan event for ship captains and crews. They’re high impact.
‘That water carries significant weight. And if the waterspout ends up dumping a load of that water on board the vessel, that’s going to cause significant damage.’
Despite thunderstorm alerts being in place, the nature of waterspouts means there would have been likely no warning it was coming, others have claimed.
Dr Pete Inness, a lecturer in meteorology at the University of Reading, said: ‘As with tornado warnings, you can say there’s a probability they could happen 24 hours in advance.
‘You can say, over that particular area of sea, there’s an increased likelihood, but until one actually forms you can’t say where it will be or how strong it is, and even then they typically only last for a couple of minutes, so there is no real warning.’
After inspecting the command bridge, which is outdoors, the divers have been able to access the main lounge after descending down an internal ladder.
Inside, they were obstructed by floating objects from chairs and cushions to utensils and plates.
However, divers have this morning been able to break through to the ‘master cabin’ where Mr Lynch and his wife Angela Bacares, who survived, had been staying during the trip, it is claimed.
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.
After three days of searching, Italian coastguard officials insist they are still looking for ‘missing people’.
Asked if they were focusing on recovering bodies rather than rescuing people, Coastguard spokesman Vincenzo Zagarola replied: ‘Reasonable, but we still look for the missing people.’
A close friend of Mr Lynch has called the incident a ‘Shakespearean tragedy’ after it happened while he was on a ‘victory’ trip with friends and family celebrating being acquitted of fraud charges in the United States in June.
British entrepreneur Brent Hoberman, who has known Mr Lynch for 28 years, describes him as a ‘bit of a boffin’ who was ‘quick-witted and smart’ with an ‘infectious love of technology’.
He added he hoped there would be ‘an amazing second act’ and those who know him are praying for a miracle and he is found alive.
‘God, what an amazing ending that would be,’ he said.
Italian authorities have opened an investigation into whether hatches left open by crew members on superyacht, which is owned by Mr Lynch, caused it to sink so quickly.
Ambrogio Cartosio, the chief prosecutor of the town of Termini Imerese, near Porticello, will concentrate on several key questions.
Firstly, how was it that nearly all the crew survived, except for chef Recaldo Thomas, and all the six missing people were passengers, not crew.
Other aspects of the accident which the investigation will focus on will include whether the boat was still chained to its anchor, which in strong winds could itself make the vessel more unstable as the storm could push the boat along and the anchor force the bow lower in the water.
The Bayesian was fitted with a sophisticated ‘drop keel’ centreboard, which effectively lowers a weight down from beneath the keel, lowering the boat’s centre of gravity and improving its stability. Whether or not that device was raised or lowered will be a vital focus of the investigation.
Another possible reason for the rapid sinking of the boat might be if the portholes were left open by the guests because of the heat of the Sicilian evening, allowing the boat to take on water more quickly in the storm.
Prosecutor Cartosio and his team will also gather evidence from emergency workers, divers, fire personnel and Coast Guard.
Salvo Cocina, president of the Civil Protection Agency in Sicily told that all the survivors from the tragedy were offered counselling and psychological help for their trauma, but all refused help.
Mr Cocina said: ‘We wanted to make sure that everyone was offered every kind of help they might need, but no-one from the passengers or the crew accepted counselling.’
He denied suggestions that the rescue operation had now morphed into that of recovering the boat and a grim cargo of bodies.
‘The operation is not complete – we don’t differentiate between rescue and recovery in these circumstances, because the people are still in the boat.
‘The divers have not yet reached the cabins, so we have not yet given up hope that there may be air pockets in their keeping them alive.’
Witnesses reported the boat went down in a matter of minutes after being hit by a tornado during the severe thunderstorm while anchored in Porticello, off the coast of Sicily.
One expert at the scene said an early focus of the official investigation into the tragedy, launched by prosecutors in nearby Termini Imerese, would be whether the yacht’s crew had closed access hatches into the vessel before the storm struck.
Investigators would look at whether appropriate measures had been taken, given the forecasts for bad weather overnight, and if any of the crew members are criminally liable.
Meanwhile, a British four-person team from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) have arrived in Sicily to conduct their own investigation into what happened.
They are understood to have arrived on Tuesday and are expected to carry out a ‘preliminary assessment’ of the site on Wednesday.
The MAIB is looking into what happened because the sailing yacht Bayesian was flying a British flag, it is understood.
The Italian coastguard said the MAIB are not involved in the search for the missing people and that it did not request assistance.
Italian coastguard spokesman Vincenzo Zagarola said: ‘Even if they come (probably) the searches are carried out by the Italian authorities. Initiative (was) not requested by us.’
Gavin Pritchard, who was a principal investigator with the UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) before retiring in 2022, told The Telegraph: ‘The MAIB will want to look at the vessel using either an ROV [remotely operated vehicle] or divers, or want to have a look and see what the positions of watertight doors, hatches and windows were.
‘It’d be important to state that doesn’t attribute blame,’ he added, saying the job of the MAIB is to establish a cause for the sinking – rather than legal liability – so safety-critical findings can be spread across the maritime industry.
He added: ‘One of the first questions that accident investigators ask is, has anything like this ever happened before? And I have to say, having observed this tragic event, I honestly can’t think of anything similar to this.’