Sicily

The family of British tech tycoon Mike Lynch is devastated and in shock, a family spokesman said in a statement, after the last body of his 18-year-old daughter Hannah was found from the wreck of his yacht in Palermo.

“The Leeds family are devastated and in a state of shock. She is supported by relatives and friends”, the text of the announcement states.

“Their thoughts are with those affected by the tragedy. They would like to sincerely thank the Italian Coast Guard, the emergency services and those who helped in the rescue operation.”

“Their only wish now is that their privacy be respected at this time of indescribable pain.”

The lifeless body of 18-year-old Hannah Lynch was found trapped at a depth of 50 meters inside a yacht cabin.

At the same time, the Italian authorities are launching a manslaughter investigation into the incident.

According to Italian media, investigators are looking into “wreck and multiple negligent homicide” offenses against “unknown persons”.

Causing a shipwreck is a separate offense under the Italian penal code and those found guilty of this offense can face up to 12 years in prison.

A press conference has been announced by the prosecutor’s office for tomorrow morning, during which more details are expected to be revealed.

Human error behind the tragedy?

Questions remain unanswered about the causes of the maritime tragedy in Palermo, Italy that turned the luxury yacht Bayesian into a wet grave, killing six people.

The yacht was hit by severe weather and according to Giovanni Constantino, chief executive of Italy’s Sea Group, which builds and sells pleasure boats, the maritime tragedy it may be due to a number of human errors.

“Why was the ship in this condition? The storm was predictable. We have to wonder why none of the fishermen in the port of Porticello went out to sea that night? Why didn’t anyone go out to sea? Everyone knew about the storm. And if even a fisherman knew, why the captain of such a ship, with guests of such level and importance, with 12 guests on board… Why was he not on alert?” Constantino asked Sky News.

He told the Financial Times it took 16 minutes from the time the wind “caught” the yacht and began dragging its anchor in Porticello harbor until it finally sank, enough time for the crew to warn passengers of the danger.

“The torture lasted 16 minutes. It sank not in a minute, as some scientists said. It sank in 16 minutes,” Costantino said. “You can see it from the maps, from the (Automatic Identification System) tracking map,” he added.

“The captain should have prepared the boat and put it on alert, just like the Sir Robert Baden Powell, which was moored 350 meters away, which was built in 1957 and handled the weather exceptionally well,” he said. Costantino.

The captain of the Sir Robert Baden Powell told Italian media that the weather conditions were unpredictable but his crew was prepared.

Mike Lynch owns the 5th body recovered from the wreck of the superyacht Bayesian in Palermo, Sicily.

As reported by Reuters, early in the morning the search for the last missing person started again. Although initial reports wanted Judy Bloomer, wife of Jonathan Bloomer and former CEO of Change Real Estate, to remain missing, newer reports want the missing person to be Lynch’s daughter, Hannah.

The rest of the bodies recovered belong to Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Blumer, Leeds’ US lawyer and partner at Clifford Chance in New York. Chris Morvillo and his wife Nedda, a jewelry designer in New York.

It is recalled that the yacht’s chef, Ricardo Thomas, was found dead a few hours after the yacht sank.

Mike Lynch was a technology guru and millionaire selling software products. The ultra-luxury yacht belonged to him and is registered to one of his companies.

According to the CEO of the company that builds and sells the yachts in question, boats like the Bayesian are “unsinkable.”

In particular, Giovanni Costantino told skynews that their structure and keel make them “unsinkable bodies”.

About the incident he says that “it sounds like an incredible story, both technically and as a fact”

“Everything that has been done reveals a very long list of mistakes. People were not supposed to be in the cabins, the boat was not supposed to be at anchor. The passengers reported something absurd, namely that the storm arrived unexpectedly, out of nowhere. This is not true. Everything was predictable. I have the weather maps right here in front of me. Nothing came suddenly. They ended up like mice”, said the businessman.

“And as Perini is a sailing ship…sailing ships are renowned to be the safest ever».

Giovanni Costantino, the CEO of The Italian Sea Group, which owns the firm which built the yacht in ‘disbelief’ after learning superyacht sank in Sicily. pic.twitter.com/evE0N9vC1L

— Sky News (@SkyNews) August 21, 2024

The “black swan” phenomenon

A rare weather phenomenon is likely to blame for the wreck. British researchers talk about the “black swan” phenomenon, i.e. the occurrence of an extreme event with great power in a very short period of time with completely unpredictable results.

“Looking at the extreme weather conditions, if we are talking about a hydro-turbine, which it appears to be, I would consider it a manifestation of the ‘black swan’ phenomenon. So we have this high impact, but low probability event. And even outside of the shipping industry, all industries face the “black swan” scenario at some point. How much readiness do we have? How much planning has been done? How much risk are we willing to take?” said the head of maritime search and rescue.

For more than three hours the Italian authorities interrogated the captain of the boat today to gain a more complete picture of the causes of the tragedy.

The titanic efforts of the rescue crews continue. for the recovery of the last body from the wreck of the superyacht Bayesian off Porticello in Palermo, Sicily.

The information that stated that the body of Mike Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter was finally found in the superyacht that sank in Palermo, Sicily was finally not verified.

The difficulty of finding Hannah Lynch’s body

According to the people of the rescue teams in Italy, it will take a… glass ball in order to locate the body of 18-year-old Hannah Lynch.

Fire and Rescue Service spokesman Luca Carey told Sky News: “We would need a crystal ball to know when we’re going to be able to find the next body. It is very difficult to move through the debris. Moving a single meter can take up to 24 hours.”

By early morning, the body of her father, Mike Lynch, who had organized the yacht trip that proved fatal for seven people, had been recovered. Yesterday Wednesday (21.08.2024), the divers had recovered four bodies from the sunken boat and they were transferred to hospitals in Palermo.

In particular, they had recovered the body of the president of Morgan Stanley International Jonathan Blumer, Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo, and their two wives.

Of course, everyone is looking for the causes of the tragedy that led to the death of a total of seven people.

“This particular yacht is almost unsinkable”

At the same time, the company that built the boat is holding the crew members of the £30m superyacht Bayesian responsible for the wreck.

In his first public comment since the wreck, Italian Sea Group CEO Giovanni Constantino told SkyNews: “This was human error, the yacht sank because it took on water.”

Mr Constantino insisted it took 16 minutes from the time the wind picked up the boat and it started dragging its anchor before it finally sank, which should have given the crew enough time to warn passengers.

“The dynamics of the sinking can be seen and read from AIS (Automatic Identification System) data and it lasted 16 minutes,” he said. “We have given this data to the prosecutors at Termini Immerse. From the pictures it looks like the yacht took on water for four minutes. All it took was another gust of wind to tip it over, which meant more water was coming in. It then straightened briefly before sinking.”

“The list of human errors is long”

Mr Constantino told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that there was a long list of errors. “The stern was clearly open, the ship’s keel should have been lowered, people should not have been in their cabins and the crew should have known about the storm.”

He added that the tragedy could have been avoided, saying: “Ask yourself – why didn’t fishermen come out of Porticello that night? A fisherman reads the weather and a ship doesn’t? The storm was all over the weather reports. It could not have been ignored.”

Earlier, a spokesman for the company told MailOnline that “procedures were not followed” on the luxury yacht and the sinking was caused by the “portholes being open despite the bad weather that had been forecast hours earlier”.

The spokesman continued, saying: “The Bayesian was built to a very high standard and would not have sunk if proper procedures had been followed by the crew.