Summary of today's developments
Six people are still missing and feared dead after a yacht capsized off Sicily early on Monday. A search operation continued today involving specialised divers.
The identity of the body found is Recaldo Thomas, a chef who was part of the crew of the Bayesian yacht, the Italian coastguard told Sky News. Thomas, who is of Canadian-Antiguan heritage, was one of the ten crew members onboard the yacht when it was hit by a tornado.
Two more survivors have been named as Leah Randall and Katja Chicken, the Italian Coastguard said. The pair, who are both South African, worked as crew members on the Bayesian vessel.
The missing individuals have been named as Mike Lynch, a British tech entrepreneur once regarded as the UK’s Bill Gates, Hannah Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter, Chris Morvillo, a lawyer who represented Lynch during a trial, and his wife Neda Morvillo, as well as Jonathan Bloomer, the chair of Morgan Stanley International bank, and his wife Judy Bloomer, a charity trustee.
The national director of Italy’s firefighting department divers, Giuseppe Petrone, said his team has managed to locate a breach in the sailboat’s hull and is working to open a passage to reach the cabins.
The British ambassador to Italy, Edward Llewellyn, told reporters he spoke with survivors. “I wanted to express my solidarity and that of the British embassy. But I also came to speak with the Italian authorities,” he said.
Karsten Borner, the captain of a nearby sailboat that was right next to the Bayesian, said that “I have never seen a vessel of this size go down so quickly. Within a few minutes, there was nothing left. Then we saw the raft with the 15 passengers. “It was a tragedy,” he added.
Emergency teams trying to access the submerged Bayesian yacht will have to make “a big choice” as the rescue efforts intensify, a maritime diving and wreckage expert has said.
Bertrand Sciboz told BBC News: “I think 50 metres is a limit to dive with a certain category of professional divers, so you will need to dive with some kind of helmet and pipe and (be) connected to the surface for oxygen, and also for for speaking and hearing and telling what you see and and do.
“It’s always very difficult, and especially with a sailing vessel, because you’ve got rope everywhere, you’ve got a sail which is floating in the current, because we are in Mediterranean Sea and not in the English Channel.
“But the main thing, you know, it’s the fact that in those kind of conditions, it’s very hard to go inside the wreck, and they will have to have to make a big choice at one moment, of salvaging the whole wreck or rescuing the bodies.”
As the sun dips below the horizon of the sea in Porticello, Italian firefighters’ divers have been tirelessly working for almost 40 hours to recover the bodies of the six missing people.
Authorities report having successfully found and opened a passage in the hull, resting at a depth of 50 meters.
However, within the sailboat, the spaces are extremely confined, making progress challenging when encountering obstacles, with furniture obstructing access to the cabins.
Prosecutors in Termine Imerese will soon question the survivors who have been moved in a security-monitored hotel in Bagheria around the clock.
Firefighters said so far that none of the six missing bodies have been located, although investigators believe they may be trapped inside the vessel when it sank.
The mother of one of the yacht survivor’s said she is “beyond relieved” her daughter’s life was spared.
Heidi Randall, the mother of Leah Randall, told Sky News: “I’m beyond relieved that my daughter’s life was spared by the grace of God.
“It doesn’t make it any easier living with the heartache of those who have lost their lives or are missing.
“My very deepest condolences to the chef’s family as they formed a great friendship.”
Leah, from South Africa, worked as a crew member on the Bayesian.
Luca Cari, a spokesperson for the firefighters, confirmed to the Guardian that “a breach inside the ship’s hull has been opened but no body has been identified yet”.
“The work is long and complicated,” he added. “And at the moment, there are no further updates.
“We will continue to search.”
Updated
Rescue teams trying to access the submerged Bayesian yacht could be listening out for a timed banging noise, a senior university lecturer said.
Dr Jean-Baptiste Souppez, who teaches mechanical, biomedical and design engineering at Aston University, said: “A sign the rescuers may be looking for is a banging noise at regular intervals: this is common practice on submarines, and was one of the signs the search mission for the Titan submarine was looking for after it went missing last year.”
He added the possibility of air pockets forming inside the vessel was “simply impossible to predict”.
The Guardian has seen a footage captured by a surveillance camera at a shipyard showing the Bayesian caught in a storm and sinking.
The video was recorded shortly after 4:10 in the morning. The vessel fired an emergency flare at 4:35 am, moments before submerging.
There were 15 survivors who were rescued after the Bayesian capsized and rapidly sank off the coast of Sicily, writes Yusra Abdulahi and Matthew Weaver.
All but three of the survivors have been named. Here is what we know about them so far:
Ayla Ronald is a 36-year-old New Zealand national, and a solicitor for Clifford Chance. She was part of the legal team who represented Mike Lynch when he was acquitted of fraud charges. Lynch is among six people missing and feared dead.
Her father confirmed she survived together with her partner Matthew Fletcher, 41, who is British.
Charlotte Golunski, 36, is a partner at Lynch’s company Invoke Capital where she has worked since 2012. She described saving her infant daughter from drowning. “For two seconds I lost the baby in the sea, then I immediately held her again in the fury of the waves,” she told Giornale di Sicilia.
Charlotte and her daughter, Sofia, 1, were treated in hospital. Her partner and child’s father James Emsley also survived.
Mike Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, 57, was seen in a wheelchair after suffering injuries to her feet inc the accident, according to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
James Catfield, the yacht’s captain, told La Repubblica that they “didn’t see it coming” after he was rescued.
Sasha Murray, a 29 year old Irish citizen injured her right foot in the tragedy, according to the Irish Times.
Italian media named Matthew Griffith, a 22-year-old French citizen, as one of the survivors.
Myin Htun Kyaw, 39-year-old from Myanmar, is reported to be among at least four crew members who survived.
Crew members Leah Randall and Katja Chicken from South Africa were both photographed leaving hospital after being rescued, Sky News reported.
Updated
Fears are growing for six people who are missing after a superyacht, the Bayesian, sank off the coast of Sicily when it was hit by a tornadic waterspout during a storm on Monday morning, writes Jane Croft, Simon Goodley, and Matthew Weaver.
On Monday the body of one man, the yacht’s chef, was recovered from the water. There were 15 survivors. A rescue mission is under way to search for six others who remain unaccounted for. The four Britons and two Americans have all been named. Here is what we know about them.
The Italian Coastguard has confirmed the name of another crew member.
Leo Eppel was on board the yacht that sank, spokesman Vincenzo Zagarola said.
Body found 'confirmed to be chef Recaldo Thomas'
The identity of the body found is Recaldo Thomas, a chef who was part of the crew of the Bayesian yacht, the Italian coastguard told Sky News.
Thomas, of Canadian-Antiguan heritage, was one of the ten crew members onboard the yacht when it was hit by a tornado.
The former school of Mike Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter has said its “thoughts are with their family and everyone involved” as the pair remain missing.
A spokesperson for Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, west London, said: “We are all incredibly shocked by the news that Hannah and her father are among those missing in this tragic incident and our thoughts are with their family and everyone involved as we await further updates.”
The Guardian has obtained an exclusive photo taken by a fisher from Porticello of the moment when the emergency rocket was launched by the Bayesian.
The photo was taken at 4:35 in the morning. According to the photographer, the image shows that the emergency rocket was launched while the boat was already sinking.
“I went out on the balcony because I have two boats moored in the harbor and I was worried about the approaching storm,” said Francesco Lo Coco, who took the image.
“Suddenly, I saw the sailboat rocking. I grabbed my phone to take the picture. The emergency rocket was launched while the sailboat was already sinking.”
Updated
Two more survivors have been named as Leah Randall and Katja Chicken, The Italian Coastguard said.
The pair, who are both South African, worked as crew members on the Bayesian vessel.
Updated
The shipwreck of a luxury yacht moored off the coast of Sicily is the latest sign that the Mediterranean is becoming a more dangerous sea to sail in, according to climate experts and sailors.
Luca Mercalli, president of Italy’s meteorological society, said the sea surface temperature around Sicily in the days leading up to the shipwreck was about 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), almost three degrees more than normal.
“This creates an enormous source of energy that contributes to these storms,” he told Reuters.
Giuliano Gallo, a former skipper who crossed the Atlantic and has written several books on sailing, said the Mediterranean was becoming more like the Caribbean, which has areas that many boats steer clear of at certain times of the year.
“But things are less predictable in the Mediterranean,” he said.
Karsten Borner, the captain of a boat that was moored alongside the Bayesian but escaped harm, said Monday’s storm had been “very violent, very intense, a lot of water and I think a turning system like a tornado”.
He also blamed more frequent episodes of intense heat during the summer months for playing a role in causing such storms.
“The water is ... way too hot for the Mediterranean and this causes for sure heavy storms, like we had one week ago on the Balearics, like we had two years ago in Corsica and so on.”
Summary of the day thus far
Six people are still missing and feared dead after a yacht capsized off Sicily early on Monday.
A search operation continued today involving specialised divers.
The missing individuals have been named as Mike Lynch, a British tech entrepreneur once regarded as the UK’s Bill Gates, Hannah Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter, Chris Morvillo, a lawyer who represented Lynch during a trial, and his wife Neda Morvillo, as well as Jonathan Bloomer, the chair of Morgan Stanley International bank, and his wife Judy Bloomer, a charity trustee.
Vincenzo Zagarola of the Italian coastguard said “we suppose that the six people missing may not have had time to get out of the boat.”
The national director of Italy’s firefighting department divers, Giuseppe Petrone, said that his team has managed to locate a breach in the sailboat’s hull and is working to open a passage to reach the cabins.
The British ambassador to Italy, Edward Llewellyn, told reporters he spoke with survivors. “I wanted to express my solidarity and that of the British embassy. But I also came to speak with the Italian authorities,” he said.
Karsten Borner, the captain of a nearby sailboat that was right next to the Bayesian, said that “I have never seen a vessel of this size go down so quickly. Within a few minutes, there was nothing left. Then we saw the raft with the 15 passengers. It was a tragedy,” he added.
With so few details of precisely what occurred to the Bayesian during its sinking, the sailing community has pondered the exact set of circumstances that could have tipped over such a large vessel and well crewed at anchor so suddenly.
One possibility that has occurred to some is that the 75m mast either broke or ended up very quickly below the surface of the water as the yacht was blown over, with a holding anchor in the sea bed creating a pivot point for the massive energy striking the exposed hull.
One of those suggesting an extraordinary coincidence of different circumstances, all occurring in rapid succession, is the celebrated yachtsman and author Skip Novak, a well known figure in ocean racing who has sailed extensively in Arctic and Antarctic waters.
Novak told the Guardian: “My theory with what little is out there is when the mast broke - an incredible thing in itself - that went over the side and that weight, combined with the side wind, and combined with the anchor holding caused an extraordinary lever to increase the heeling moment.
“All that combined put her on her side. Then those big side windows blew out and/or an open aft deck to the interior and she flooded in a jiffy. Hard to imagine what else it could have been.”
Lorenzo Tondo reporting from Porticello
The national director of Italy’s firefighting department divers, Giuseppe Petrone, told the Guardian that his team has managed to locate a breach in the sailboat’s hull and is working to open a passage to reach the cabins where they hope to find the bodies of the six missing individuals.
“We have finally located a breach,” Petrone says. “Our men are working to open it. We are hopeful.”
Yacht's missing six passengers feared dead, Italian coastguard says
The yacht’s six missing passengers are feared dead, as search efforts continue.
Vincenzo Zagarola of the Italian coastguard told the PA news agency that “our search and rescue activity by sea and air has gone on for around 36 hours.”
“Of course, we do not exclude that they are not inside the boat, but we know the boat sank quickly,” he said, adding that “we suppose that the six people missing may not have had time to get out of the boat.”
Asked about the likelihood of them being alive, he replied: “Never say never, but reasonably the answer should be not.”
Updated
A spokesperson for law firm Clifford Chance said it is “deeply saddened” by the sinking of superyacht Bayesian.
We are in shock and deeply saddened by this tragic incident.
Our thoughts are with our partner, Christopher Morvillo, and his wife, Neda, who are among the missing.
Our utmost priority is providing support to the family as well as our colleague Ayla Ronald, who together with her partner thankfully survived the incident.
Our thoughts extend to the other passengers and crew and all those affected.
We have no further comment at this time. We, and the families, ask that their request for privacy is honoured during this period.
The British ambassador to Italy, Edward Llewellyn, told reporters he spoke with survivors.
“It’s a tragedy, I met with the survivors, I wanted to express my solidarity and that of the British embassy. But I also came to speak with the Italian authorities,” he said.
“The investigations are being carried out by the Italian authorities, from the United Kingdom we have sent our officers, as always in cases like this,” the ambassador added.
Lorenzo Tondo in Bagheria
All fifteen survivors of the Bayesian yacht shipwreck are now at the Hotel Domina Zagarella in Bagheria.
At about 1 pm, one-year-old survivor Sophie arrived with her mother and father. The hotel is guarded outside by security personnel preventing access to journalists.
The survivors received a visit from the British ambassador to Italy this morning and are being supported by a team of psychologists.
The hotel is just a few metres from the coast. The survivors are awaiting news from the divers involved in the search, with helicopters flying overhead visible from the hotel balconies.
The latest dive conducted by firefighters appeared to have yielded no results thus far.
Updated
Who is missing?
Six people are still missing following the sinking of the Bayesian. They include four British nationals and two Americans. A number of those people worked with Mike Lynch on his recent trial in the US, where he was acquitted of fraud.
Those who have been named are Mike Lynch, a British tech entrepreneur once regarded as the UK’s Bill Gates, and Hannah Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter. Chris Morvillo, a lawyer who represented Lynch during his trial, and his wife Neda Morvillo as well as Jonathan Bloomer, the chair of Morgan Stanley International bank, and his wife Judy Bloomer, a charity trustee have also been named.
Among the 15 people rescued are nine members of the yacht’s crew. One man, the yacht’s chef, has died.
Updated
What is a waterspout?
According to the US National Ocean Service, waterspouts are a whirling column of air and water mist. They fall into two categories: fair-weather waterspouts and ones found during oceanic tornadoes that form during storms.
Tornadic waterspouts, which develop downward in a thunderstorm, can either form over water or move from land to water and have the same characteristics as a land tornado. According to the NOS they are “often accompanied by high winds and seas, large hail, and frequent dangerous lightning”. Fair-weather waterspouts, in contrast, usually form along the dark flat base of a line of developing cumulus clouds.
The waterspout that struck Lynch’s yacht appears to have been a tornadic waterspout, caused by one of the many storms that have swept through Italy in recent days, with floods and landslides causing severe damage in the north of the country after weeks of scorching heat.
What is the danger of being hit by a waterspout?
The energy from the winds in a waterspout can cause damage and injury, but the biggest risk involves a so-called knock-down, which can tear off a boat’s mast.
While yachts are generally more difficult to capsize than smaller dinghies, a knock-down occurs when the yacht is struck by wind or waves with sufficient force to push the mast parallel with the water. The most serious scenario occurs when the mast drops below the water line. Lynch’s yacht was fitted with a 75-metre mast, the world’s second-tallest.
Updated
One of the earliest mentions of Mike Lynch in the pages of the Guardian was a piece in 1997 profiling the tech tycoon, who was a rare beast: an internet entrepreneur who was actually making money. Even more improbable, he was British.
At a time when the biggest players in the IT industry, mainly from the US, burned money as they grappled with how to profit from fledgling internet technology, Lynch, managing director of Autonomy, a Cambridge-based startup, designed systems that could make sense of the vast information available online, mimicking the thought processes of the human mind when searching.
Autonomy further cemented its success by realising the commercial opportunities of designing technology that gave online service providers an insight into their user’s search habits, allowing them to serve adverts to their specific interests.
The buzz created by Automy’s success led to an eye-catching increase in its valuation; the £10m it raised to start the company helped increase its valuation to £80m within 18 months. Lynch also had designs on a partial flotation of Autonomy on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
Lynch told Ian Katz, then the Guardian’s internet editor, that despite Autonomy’s success, his US customers and rivals were puzzled by the firm’s rapid rise, adding: “I have actually heard the comment, ‘England, software? I thought you made bone china’.”
Diving teams attempt to access stern and say huge volume of water entered yacht in very short time during storm
Another operation is currently under way to search for the bodies of the six missing individuals. The team of 19 firefighters’ divers descend to the depths in groups of three and will attempt to create an opening at the stern from a window in the “living” area of the main deck to access the interior of the yacht.
The search is challenging due to the furniture that has been dislodged and is blocking access to the cabins. The divers will have to first inspect the side of the yacht resting on the seabed.
According to the rescuers a huge amount of water seems to have entered the yacht during the storm from the stern or bow in a very short time, causing the hull to pitch up and sink within minutes.
Updated
Divers struggle to access yacht's cabins
Italian divers are struggling to access the cabins of the Bayesian, having started diving at 8am local time.
According to a post from Vigili del Fuoco, Italy’s fire and rescue service, underwater teams are yet to get inside the yacht and are now planning alternative ways to access the sunken boat.
Earlier Marco Tilotta, who is in charge of the firefighter divers from Palermo, said that the boat is positioned at 90 degrees. It is sitting 49 metres below the surface of the water.
❌ #Porticello #Palermo, riprese alle 8 di #oggi le immersioni dei #sommozzatori speleo dei #vigilidelfuoco per le ricerche dei 6 dispersi. Complesso l’ingresso nello yacht, in atto la pianificazione per aprire accessi più agevoli e ispezionare l’interno [#20agosto 11:00] pic.twitter.com/QRTdGtO8r2
— Vigili del Fuoco (@vigilidelfuoco) August 20, 2024
A team of psychologists from the Palermo Health Authority and the civil protection is providing assistance to the survivors who have been accommodated at the Domina Zagarella hotel.
Among them is Angela Bacares, the 57-year-old wife of Mike Lynch and mother of teenager Hannah Lynch, who are both missing.
Yesterday, Bacares received medical treatment at a hospital in Termini Imerese before being transferred to the Domina Hotel, visibly in shock and using a wheelchair.
'They were in the wrong place at the wrong time': eyewitness describes how storm hit yacht
Lorenzo Tondo reporting from Porticello
Fabio Cefalù, 36, a fisher from Porticello, was one of the first to attempt providing assistance to the Bayesian.
“I arrived at the port at 3:30 for a fishing trip,” he told the Guardian. “But when we saw the first flashes of lightning, we decided to stop. At 3:55, a mini tornado arrived. The docks of the port diverted it and it hit the sailboat head-on. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Cefalù said that the whirlwind lasted about “10 minutes with strong winds and rain.”
“We saw a flare 500 meters from the dock,” he said, adding:
We went to see what had happened. We only saw the floating debris of the boat. We immediately called the Coast Guard.
The sea was terrible. The wind very strong. The storm destroyed my solar panels. The vessel was hit head-on. I thought I would find someone in the sea. But nothing. The boat had disappeared from the radar.
In my opinion, the missing passengers are still on board. They were caught in their sleep by the storm and didn’t have time to get out.
Updated
'Within a few minutes, there was nothing left': captain of nearby boat describes Bayesian sinking
Karsten Borner, 69, the captain of a nearby sailboat that was right next to the Bayesian, said that the vessel carrying Mike Lynch and 21 other passengers sank within minutes.
“We were also awakened by the storm,” Karsten told The Guardian.
“The first thing I did was to start the engines of my sailboat to give more stability to the vessel. I don’t know if the Bayesian did the same. It seems like they were also suddenly caught by the storm,” he said.
“After securing our boat, we immediately approached the Bayesian. But it had already sunk. I have never seen a vessel of this size go down so quickly. Within a few minutes, there was nothing left. Then we saw the raft with the 15 passengers. It was a tragedy,” he added.
Updated
A spokesperson for Morgan Stanley said the bank was “shocked and saddened” by news that non-executive chairman of Morgan Stanley International Jonathan Bloomer was among those missing, the PA news agency reported.
The family of Stephen Chamberlain, co-defendant in the US trial of missing technology tycoon Mike Lynch, have described him as “a much-loved husband, father, son, brother and friend” following his death after being hit by a car while out running in Cambridgeshire on Saturday, the PA news agency reported.
'We have not yet entered the boat', firefighters chief says as search efforts continue
Lorenzo Tondo reporting from Porticello
Rescue efforts for the six missing persons from the shipwreck of the sailboat Bayesian, which sank yesterday morning off the coast of Porticello, resumed this morning.
The cave-diving and diving teams of Italy’s firefighters, who arrived from Rome, Sassari, and Cagliari yesterday, have just completed another dive.
Marco Tilotta, chief of the firefighters divers in Palermo leading the search, explains that there are numerous challenges in recovering the bodies, foremost being the depth of the vessel.
“We have just completed the latest dive to inspect the boat,” Tilotta told the Guardian.
He added:
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.
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.
Tilotta said that besides one body found yesterday, no other bodies have been located.
Updated
The boss of insurance group Hiscox, Aki Hussain, said he is “deeply shocked and saddened” as he confirmed the company’s non-executive chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy Bloomer are among those missing, the PA news agency reported.
We are deeply shocked and saddened by this tragic event.
Our thoughts are with all those affected, in particular our chair, Jonathan Bloomer, and his wife Judy, who are among the missing, and with their family as they await further news from this terrible situation.
Bloomer is also chairman of Morgan Stanley International.
The British government’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch said four inspectors had been sent to Sicily to conduct a “preliminary assessment,” Reuters reported.
One expert at the scene who declined to be named said an early focus of the investigation would be whether the yacht’s crew had had time to close access hatches into the vessel before the storm struck.
Here are images from the search operation in Sicily.
Here’s a map of the area where the yacht Bayesian sank off the coast of Sicily early Monday.
Fresh search underway for six missing people following superyacht sinking
Specialist Italian divers have launched a fresh search for six people missing since their yacht capsized off Sicily before dawn on Monday, AFP reported.
The yacht, the British-flagged Bayesian, had 22 people aboard including 10 crew.
Six people, including UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch, are still missing.
Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares was among 15 people rescued, but the businessman and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah were missing, Salvo Cocina, head of the Civil Protection Agency in Sicily, told AFP.
Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer and Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo are also missing.
A first search of the wreck some 50 metres below the sea surface failed.
“Access was limited only to the bridge, with difficulty due to the presence of furniture obstructing passage,” the firefighters said.
