Dramatic CCTV shows a storm ravaging the Bayesian superyacht before it sank beneath the waves ‘in 60 seconds’.
Six people including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, as well as a Morgan Stanley boss, are missing after the £30million vessel sank amid a freak weather event yesterday morning.
Footage filmed by a camera battered by wind and rain shows the Bayesian anchored in the distance.
Speaking to Giornale di Sicilia, the local who owns the footage said: ‘In just sixty seconds you can see the ship disappear. By chance, after the uproar of the news, I looked at the cameras. My children told me.
‘Of about twenty cameras installed in the house, only one was not disturbed by the wind and the rain. You can clearly see what is happening. There was nothing that could be done for the vessel. It disappeared in a very short time’.
There is reportedly a second video – which has not been published – showing the boat sinking.
It comes as rescuers frantically searching for trapped survivors in the capsized superyacht off the coast of Sicily have warned that the next 24 hours are ‘critical’ if there is to be any hope of finding anyone alive.
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Search teams say the boat is marooned 164ft below the surface on the seabed and is so deep that dive teams can only go down for 10 minutes at a time, with their efforts being hampered by furniture blocking the entrances.
One expert has claimed that the ship, which is almost completely intact despite not being ‘anchored in a safe place’ before it sank, could have trapped pockets of air inside that might allow survivors to stay alive after the ‘unprecedented’ disaster.
Nick Sloane, an engineer who led the salvage operation on the Costa Concordia, said ‘the next 24 hours are critical’ if any of the missing people are to be found alive, with a time limit of ‘two to three days’ before anyone who has found an air pocket runs out of oxygen.
There have been instances in the past of people surviving for days underwater in these circumstances, but rescue divers have warned that they are prepared to find bodies instead of living, breathing survivors.
One person is confirmed to have died after the £30million superyacht was struck by a terrifying waterspout at around 5am, with the ship’s captain emotionally claiming ‘we didn’t see it coming’ from his hospital bed.
The luxury sailboat was anchored just a few hundred metres off the coast of Porticello on calm seas when it was suddenly struck by a violent waterspout just before 5am on Monday.
It is believed the ship sank after its mast – one of tallest in the world at an enormous 246ft-high – snapped during the brutal incident and keeled over, taking the hull beyond the ‘down-flooding angle’, according to nautical experts.
Engineer Nick Sloane, who led the salvage operation of the cruise ship Costa Concordia in 2012, told Sky News that despite this there may be a slim chance that there are survivors.
He said: ‘They’ve got a very small window of time to try to find people stuck inside with hopefully an air pocket, and they could be rescued.
‘You’ve got a maximum of two to three days to try to get someone out, so the next 24 hours are critical.
‘If the yacht is on its side, it might have more air pockets than if it’s upright. She’s got quite a large keel, and that will deflect and put her on her side, I’m sure.’
There is precedent for this to happen – in 2013 cook Harrison Odjegba Okene was remarkably rescued three days after his tugboat sank to the bottom of the Atlantic when he found safety in an air pocket.
Despite the sliver of hope, Italian Coastguard officials have said they believe the six people who are still missing have died and their bodies are inside the wreck.
Vincenzo Zagarola said: ‘We think they are still inside the boat, that is our very hard idea.
‘Our search and rescue activity by sea and air has gone on for around 36 hours. Of course, we do not exclude that they are not inside the boat, but we know the boat sank quickly.
‘We suppose that the six people missing may not have had time to get out of the boat.’
Asked about the likelihood of them being alive, he replied: ‘Never say never, but reasonably the answer should be not.’
Divers attempting to get inside the superyacht have found their progress impeded with furniture blocking the entrances and exits, and the depth meaning that they can only spend 10 minutes at the wreck before having to return to the surface.
Those in charge of the operation say the specialist divers are struggling to reach the cabins where survivors might be and are having to drill their way into the lounge.
Among those missing is Mr Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, a former pupil at Latymer Upper School in West London who received her A-Level results last week and was offered a place at Oxford. Today, a spokesman for the school said they were ‘incredibly shocked’ by the news of the sinking and shared their thoughts with ‘her family and everyone involved’.
Also believed to be in the wreck is Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo, who represented Mr Lynch in a recent legal battle and his wife Neda, and Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy. Athena Lamnisos, CEO of Gynaecological cancer research charity Eve Appeal, where Ms Bloomer has been a trustee for more than 20 years, today hailed her a ‘brilliant champion for women’s health’.
Mr Lynch had invited family and friends onto the yacht to celebrate his ‘second life’ after being acquitted of all charges in a US fraud trial, and in an extraordinary twist his co-defendant Stephen Chamberlain – who was also cleared of the charges – has also died after being hit by a car while running in England over the weekend.
Those who could escape piled into the Survitech Zodiac liferaft, which self-inflated on hitting the water in an emergency. The French-made device comes packed in a compact cube the size of a large suitcase and is rated to hold 12 people.
However, in the chaos 15 people were forced to take shelter on the craft before they were rescued by a nearby yacht and taken to shore.
The injured who were rescued by the medics and taken to hospital are James Emsilie, 35 years old with his wife Sharlotte Golunski 35 years old and little Sophia, one year old. They are all English and are in the Children’s Hospital.