British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter are among six people reported missing after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of the Italian island of Sicily early on Monday morning.
The 56-meter (183-foot) yacht, named Bayesian, was carrying 22 people, including British, American, and Canadian nationals. As of the latest reports, fifteen people have been rescued, including a one-year-old British girl. The search for the missing continues into the night.
Local media have reported that the yacht capsized around 05:00 local time after being struck by a heavy storm that caused waterspouts, or rotating columns of air, to form over the sea. The Bayesian was anchored off the coast of Porticello, near the Sicilian capital Palermo, when the incident occurred.
Mr. Lynch, known as “the British Bill Gates” for co-founding the software company Autonomy, which was later acquired by Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion (£8.6 billion), was on board the vessel when it sank. Witnesses told the Italian news agency Ansa that the yacht’s anchor was down when the storm hit, leading to the mast breaking and the vessel losing balance.
Salvatore Cocina, the Director General of Sicily’s Civil Protection Agency, told the BBC, “Mr. Lynch, his daughter Hannah Lynch, and the yacht’s chef are among the missing.” He confirmed that the search efforts, involving caving and rescue diving teams, would continue overnight.
The body of one man, believed to be the yacht’s chef, was found outside the wreckage. His nationality has not been disclosed. “Our thoughts are with all those affected, in particular our chair, Jonathan Bloomer, and his wife Judy, who are among the missing, and with their family as they await further news from this terrible situation,” said Aki Hussain, CEO of Hiscox, where Jonathan Bloomer is Chairman.
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The Italian Coast Guard stated, “The vessel was hit by a tornado at around 5 a.m. local time Monday.” Divers have identified the wreckage at approximately 50 meters below the water’s surface and are searching for the missing.
“It was all dark,” said Charlotte Golunski, a survivor, describing her struggle to keep her one-year-old daughter afloat amid the storm. “In the water, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I was screaming for help, but all I could hear around me were the screams of others.”
The Bayesian had the tallest aluminum mast in the world at 72.27 meters (237 feet), according to its Italian manufacturer, Perini Navi. The yacht, which sailed under a British flag, had a maximum speed of 15 knots and could carry up to 12 guests and a crew of 10.
The UK Foreign Office commented, “We are providing consular support to a number of British nationals and their families following an incident in Sicily, and are in contact with the local authorities.”
The search and rescue efforts are being hindered by the challenging conditions and the depth of the wreckage. The United Kingdom’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch has deployed a team of inspectors to conduct a preliminary assessment of the yacht.
In related news, Stephen Chamberlain, Lynch’s co-defendant at a recent fraud trial, died on Saturday after being hit by a car while out running in Cambridgeshire. “He was a courageous man with unparalleled integrity,” said Chamberlain’s lawyer, Gary Lincenberg. “We deeply miss him. He fought successfully to clear his good name, which lives on through his wonderful family.”
As the search continues, the tragedy has brought significant attention to the dangers posed by severe weather conditions at sea. The Bayesian was last tracked east of Palermo on Sunday evening with its navigation status marked as “at anchor.”
Strong storms across Sicily brought torrential rainfall late Sunday, dumping more than 4 inches (100mm) of rain in less than four hours in Brolo, east of Palermo. A report from the European Severe Weather Database revealed that a waterspout — a type of tornado that forms over water or moves from land to water — developed over the area where the yacht was anchored Monday morning.
One body was found on the hull of the vessel. Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, the captain of the yacht, and a one-year-old girl are among the people rescued. Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter is still missing.
An Italian newspaper reported Tuesday that Bacares and her husband were initially unconcerned when woken at 4 a.m. local time as the boat tilted. They only became worried when the yacht’s windows shattered and chaos broke out, she was reported as telling La Repubblica in an interview at a hospital in Sicily.
Lynch, a 59-year-old tech investor and entrepreneur, was acquitted in June in a fraud trial linked to the multi-billion dollar sale of Autonomy, the software firm he co-founded, to Hewlett-Packard. Prosecutors alleged that Lynch had schemed to inflate Autonomy’s revenue prior to the sale.
Morvillo, an American lawyer at Clifford Chance, was involved in successfully defending the case against Lynch. A Clifford Chance spokesperson said the law firm was “in shock and deeply saddened.” “Our thoughts are with our partner, Christopher Morvillo, and his wife Neda who are among the missing. Our utmost priority is providing support to the family as well as our colleague Ayla Ronald, who together with her partner, thankfully survived the incident,” the spokesperson added.
The British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch is missing after a superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily during a violent storm. The British-flagged Bayesian, a 56-meter sailboat, was carrying 22 people and anchored just off shore near the port of Porticello when it was hit by a tornado in the early hours, the Italian coastguard said in a statement.
One man, understood to be the vessel’s chef, was confirmed dead and six others, including Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, remained unaccounted for on Monday evening. The coastguard said the missing had British, American, and Canadian nationalities.
Fifteen people were rescued, including Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, who owned the boat, and a one-year-old girl who was saved by her mother.
A spokesperson for Lynch declined to comment. The UK Foreign Office said: “We are providing consular support to a number of British nationals and their families following an incident in Sicily, and are in contact with the local authorities.”
The yacht left the Sicilian port of Milazzo on 14 August and was last tracked east of Palermo on Sunday evening, with a navigation status of “at anchor,” according to the tracking app VesselFinder.
Reports in the local media said a waterspout had hit the vessel. A waterspout, which roughly resembles a mini-tornado, is a column that descends from a cloud to form a rotating mixture of wind and water over a body of water.
Some fishers reported spotting a small tornado off the coast at about 3:55 a.m. Shortly after, they witnessed a distress flare allegedly launched from the vessel. The fishers approached but recounted seeing only “scattered remains of the sailboat floating in the water.”
Storms and heavy rainfall have swept through Italy in recent days, with floods and landslides causing severe damage in the north of the country after weeks of scorching heat. The captain of a nearby boat said that when the winds surged, he had turned the engine on 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,” said Karsten Borner. “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 – including three who were seriously injured, and a baby girl and her mother – and took them onboard before the coastguard picked them up.
