The British-flagged 56-metre sailing yacht Bayesian, with 10 crew and 12 passengers, was anchored about 700 meters from the harbor when it was hit by a water vortex similar to a small tornado before dawn on Monday.
The 15 people on board, including a mother with a one-year-old child, were rescued, but one body was found hours later, that of a man who was reportedly the yacht’s chef.
On Tuesday, divers searching for the six people still missing strapped on oxygen cylinders and began descending in choppy seas to the wreckage, about 50 meters underwater.
That depth means each dive takes no more than 12 minutes, including two minutes for descent and ascent, according to fire department spokesman Luca Cari.
Divers opened a hole in the hull of the yacht
According to Italian media, divers managed to open a hole in the hull of the superyacht.
The vessel is lying on its side on the seabed and appeared to be undamaged until the hole was made, Marco Tilotta, inspector of the diving department of the Palermo fire service, told Il Messaggero.
He said the ship was “without any cracks”.
Ms Tilotta told Britain’s Sky News that rescue teams were facing difficult conditions – read more in our previous report.
“Drastic” conditions
Ms. Tilotta previously stated that the rescue teams have to face very difficult conditions.
He told Sky News that divers had been in the water “non-stop” from dawn until 11.30pm yesterday. in the evening, and today from 6 o’clock in the morning – again.
“Our job is to help people and hope to find them alive, but obviously the conditions are not favorable,” he said.
“Throughout our careers as divers, these are events that are clearly difficult to prevent, so they’re really unlikely and difficult to manage.” I don’t even dare to think what the people on board experienced,” he added.
Who are the people missing in the disaster?
The passengers were guests of Mr Lynch, a high-profile tech entrepreneur and investor sometimes referred to as Britain’s Bill Gates, who was celebrating his recent acquittal in a massive US fraud case.
Mr Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares was among 15 people rescued, but the businessman himself and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah were missing, said Salvo Cocina, head of Sicily’s civil protection agency.
Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer, who testified for Mr Lynch in the US case, has also disappeared along with his wife Judy, UK insurer Hiscox said on Tuesday.
Mr Bloomer is also chairman of Hiscox, which issued a statement saying it was “deeply shocked and saddened” by the incident.
Clifford Chance lawyer Christopher Morvillo, who represented Mr Lynch, was also on board with his wife, media reported.
Mr. Lynch, 59, was acquitted of all charges in a San Francisco court in early June, and he was charged with $11 billion. fraud involving the sale of his software company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard.
2024-08-21 01:31:07