Five bodies found, four recovered in sunken superyacht search

News
World

Author: NZ Herald,
Publish Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2024, 8:22am

Divers searching the Bayesian, the superyacht which sank off the coast of Sicily, have found five bodies and recovered four of them, according to local authorities.

Among those bodies identified are tech mogul Mike Lynch, Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo, and Morgan Stanley International chair Jonathan Bloomer, Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported.

Search and rescue divers have spent days trying to access the Bayesian to recover the bodies of those inside after the superyacht sank in a freak storm. Photo / Vigil Fuoco

A woman’s body had also been found. Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah, Morvillo’s wife Neda and Bloomer’s wife Judy were among those missing.

Salvo Cocina, the director-general of Sicily’s civil protection agency, confirmed that five bodies had been found but only four brought to shore. One person remained missing, he said.

Mike Lynch, the technology tycoon known as “Britain’s Bill Gates”, is one of Britain’s best-known and most controversial technology entrepreneurs. Photo / Getty Images

Searches had finished for the day and would resume on Thursday, Cocina said.

CNN reporters saw four body bags being moved from rescue boats into ambulances at the port of Porticello, near where the boat sank, though authorities did not provide details about those inside.

Yacht Bayesian sinks off the coast of Sicily.

Rescuers have spent days trying to reach those remaining inside the boat but have been hampered by the depth of the vessel and debris blocking passageways.

The six had been missing since the 56m yacht sank amid a freak storm off the coast of Sicily on Monday, with 22 people on board. Fifteen had been rescued and one, the boat’s chef, was killed.

James Cutfield, the Kiwi captain of S/Y Bayesian, the superyacht that capsized off Palermo. Photo / Perini Navi / Facebook