Sicily Yacht: Search Continues for British Tech Tycoon, Morgan Stanley Chairman
Rescue teams have on Tuesday resumed search operations for six missing people after a luxury yacht sunk off the coast of Sicily, southern Italy, reported Reuters.
A violent storm struck the British-flagged “Bayesian” on Monday while anchored just off the port of Porticello, near Sicily. The incident killed one of the 22 people on board.
The British tech entrepreneur, Mike Lynch, and his daughter, as well as the chairman of Morgan Stanley International, Jonathan Bloomer, and the lawyer at Clifford Chance who represented Lynch in a US trial, Chris Morvillo, are among the six missing people.
According to the head of civil protection in Sicily, Salvatore Cocina, 15 people had managed to escape the yacht before it sank, including Lynch’s wife. Authorities in the nearby town of Termini Imerese have opened an investigation into the incident.
On Monday, divers had reached the boat at a depth of around 50 meters, but could not access it due to numerous challenges. The chief of the firefighters divers in Palermo, Marco Tilotta, explained to the Guardian the difficulty of recovering the bodies.
“The greatest challenge is the depth, which does not allow for immediate interventions. You have to consider that when we go underwater, we have 3 minutes to descend and 8 minutes to work on the wreck. Then we have to begin the ascent phase,” he said.
Tilotta also pointed to the difficulty of accessing the boat. He said: “There is also the problem of accessing the vessel with all the belongings inside and the fact that the boat is positioned at 90 degrees. We have not yet entered the boat. We plan to do so soon and inspect every inch of the vessel.”
