A manslaughter investigation has been opened into the deaths of seven people in the sinking of a luxury yacht off the coast of Sicily, an Italian prosecutor said.
British tech mogul Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah were among six bodies recovered after the Bayesian superyacht sank near Porticello at about 5am local time on Monday.
The body of Canadian-Antiguan national Recaldo Thomas, who was working as a chef on the superyacht, was recovered at the scene on Monday.
Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy Bloomer, Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo were also recovered from the wreckage.
Ambrogio Cartosio, public prosecutor of nearby town Termini Imerese, said in a press conference at the town’s court on Saturday that his office has opened an initial investigation into manslaughter, according to a translation.
He added that they are conducting an investigation against unknown persons.
Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, public prosecutor Mr Cartosio said: “These six persons who tried desperately to save themselves were finally retrieved.
“First of all, four of them. Jonathan Bloomer the banker, Christopher Morvillo the lawyer, and all four of them were retrieved from inside the yacht which was 50 metres down. Then, later, the other two were also retrieved.
“Michael Lynch on the 23rd, yesterday, and then the 18-year-old daughter of Michael Lynch, Hannah, was found yesterday morning.
“It is a very grave tragedy and in order to reduce the dimensions of the tragedy, we have called upon the co-operation of the firefighters, firefighting divers, who have shown incredible courage and skill, who carried out a very difficult mission indeed and have allowed us to inspect properly the wreck for bodies.”
All of the bodies onboard the sunken yacht were found in a single cabin which “was not theirs”, a prosecutor told reporters.
Raffaele Cammarano said: “The bodies were found in a cabin which was not theirs but this doesn’t give us any kind of certainty about what happened.
“We have no idea of the reasons for their all being found in the same cabin.”
The bodies of six people were recovered from cabins on the left side of the yacht after it had sunk, the chief of the Palermo fire service said.
Girolamo Bentivoglio, chief of the Palermo fire service, said that specialised divers attempting to retrieve the bodies had to deal with “very little visibility due to the weather conditions” and were called in from across the country as part of a search-and-rescue operation which involved “some 70 people” each day.
He added: “The yacht obviously pinned to the right and obviously the (people) tried to go on the other side and then took refuge in their cabins.
“We found four or five bodies in the cabin on the left and there was another one in the third cabin on the left too, and obviously they were in the higher part of the wreck.
“Obviously, emergency procedures were implemented by the divers and obviously we installed cameras and involved further divers.
“And we involved obviously helicopter services and other surveillance camera
