Factbox: What we know about the sinking of Mike Lynch's superyacht off Sicily
26/08/2024 15:50
(Adds details after prosecutors' press conference)
ROME, Aug 26 (Reuters) - The sinking of a luxury yacht
on Aug. 19 off the northern coast of Sicily left seven people
dead, including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, his daughter
Hannah and Morgan Stanley's Jonathan Bloomer.
Here is what we know about the accident.
VIOLENT STORM
The Bayesian, a British flagged 56-metre (184-feet)
superyacht, sank in the pre-dawn dark off the port of
Porticello, near Palermo, after a very severe and sudden weather
event.
Prosecutor Raffaele Cammarano said on Saturday the event was
most likely a "downburst", a very strong downward wind that is
an intense but relatively frequent event at sea, rather than a
waterspout which involves rotating winds like a whirlwind or
tornado.
Twenty-two people were on board, and 15 survived, including
nine out of 10 crew members as well as Lynch's wife, whose
company owned the Bayesian. They were found on a life raft. Six
out of the 12 passengers died.
Prosecutors, who have put the yacht's captain James Cutfield
under investigation for manslaughter and shipwreck, said the
ship would have to be pulled out of the water before the
investigation could be concluded.
STERN FIRST WENT DOWN
The Bayesian sent its last signal before sinking via the
tracking Automatic Identification System (AIS) at 0206 GMT,
according to the MarineTraffic website.
Chief Prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio said a red flare alerting
emergency services about the emergency was fired into the sky at
0238 GMT, more than 30 minutes after the boat had gone down.
The head of Palermo's Fire Brigade, Girolamo Bentivoglio
Fiandra, said the boat sank from the stern and is lying on its
starboard side at a depth of around 50 metres (164 feet).
In the yacht, the bodies of the dead were found in the
cabins on the left-hand side of the boat, where the passengers
may have tried to search for remaining bubbles of air, he added.
Prosecutor Cammarano said the passengers were all probably
asleep at the time of the storm which was why they failed to
escape.
THE OTHER BOAT
The nearby yacht, the 42-metre Sir Robert Baden Powell,
remained anchored and weathered the storm after its captain
turned on the engine to keep control and avoid a collision with
the Bayesian.
The captain, Karsten Borner, said he did not know if the
crew of the Bayesian had managed to switch on its engines.
"I only know that they went flat with the mast on the water
and that they sank in two minutes," he said.
'INCOMPREHENSIBLE'
Andrea Ratti, a nautical design professor at Milan
Polytechnic university, said a boat the size of the Bayesian
could only sink so rapidly by taking in a huge amount of water.
He suggested that one or more portholes, windows or other
openings may have been left open, broken or smashed by the
storm, letting in water.
However, an industry expert in Britain said it should have
taken hours for the Bayesian to fill up with enough water to
sink it, making its swift demise incomprehensible.
The Bayesian had a retractable keel - a fin-like stabilising
structure under the hull which can be partially lifted to reduce
the depth of the boat when entering shallow waters or harbours.
Several experts have wondered if the yacht had been moored
with its keel up, potentially compromising its stability in a
violent storm.
UNSINKABLE
The Bayesian was built in 2008 by Perini Navi, an Italian
luxury yacht maker. It featured the world's tallest aluminium
mast, measuring 72 metres, but early reports that the mast broke
in the storm have so far proven unfounded.
Giovanni Costantino, CEO of the Italian Sea Group, which
owns Perini, said the yacht was "one of the safest boats in the
world" and basically unsinkable.
He alleged that the sinking was due to a chain of human
errors given that the storm was expected. He made his assertions
partly based on data from the Automatic Identification System.
The captain and other crew members have not spoken publicly
about the disaster and attempts by Reuters to reach them have
been unsuccessful.
Costantino said that had the crew shut all doors and
hatches, turned on the engine, lifted the anchor, lowered the
keel and turned the yacht to face the wind, it would have
suffered no damage.
He added that data showed it took 16 minutes from when the
wind began buffeting the yacht, and it began taking on water,
for it to sink.
Reuters has not been able to confirm his assertions.
(Reporting by Giselda Vagnoni, additional reporting by Giulia
Segreti, Alvise Armellini, Matteo Negri, Giulio Piovaccari and
Josephine Mason in London; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
((alvise.armellini@thomsonreuters.com;))