Bayesian superyacht divers could have to RAISE wreck from seabed to find missing Hannah Lynch as search enters day 5
THE SEARCH for missing Brit teen Hannah Lynch has resumed off the coast of Sicily today after the sinking of the Bayesian superyacht.
Divers recovered five of the six missing passengers, including Hannah’s dad Mike Lynch, from the sunken boat during a painstaking operation lasting several days.
Yesterday coastguard official Vincenzo Zagarola said he believes the 18-year-old is trapped inside the boat.
This is where rescuers recovered the five other tourists, trapped in the left side of the almost perfectly intact wreck some 160ft underwater on the ocean floor.
Hannah’s mum Angela Bacares, 57, was one of the 15 rescued from the boat as it sank on Monday.
It comes as workers may have to dredge the yacht up from the sea in order to complete their investigation into how the luxury £14million vessel sank.
Zagarola said the issue will be raised as soon as they track down missing Hannah, the final passenger unaccounted for from the 22 originally onboard.
Bringing the wreck ashore will give investigators the chance to properly scour the boat as part of their probe.
Officials said on Thursday how it can take as long as “24 hours” to move just a metre inside the wreck as it sits on the sea floor, full of floating debris some 164ft down.
It comes as…
- Five bodies were recovered from the yacht wreck including Brit tycoon Mike Lynch
- The CEO of the firm that produced the Bayesian said the boat is ‘unsinkable’ and pointed to human error
- Mr Lynch’s daughter Hannah, 18, presumed missing as search for her continues
- Captain James Cutfield was quizzed for two hours by cops and remains at the centre of a probe
- Experts believe the yacht’s ‘tallest mast in the world‘ may have contributed to the disaster after a freak ‘Black Swan’ weather event struck
- Pictures showed the tiny raft that saved up to 15 people
- Frantic text messages from the survivors revealed the chaos
More details about the disaster surfaced yesterday as emergency workers revealed how the passengers tried to flee the water as it gushed onboard.
Witnesses said the boat’s 246ft tall mast was struck by a “tornado”, referring to a swirling cloud-like waterspout caused by a freak storm off the coast of Porticello Harbour.
It toppled the boat at around 5am on Monday, causing it to capsize and take on huge amounts of water as it plunged to the bottom of the sea.
Divers said the guests pulled from the wreckage fled their cabins on the right – or starboard – side of the boat and tried to “climb” to safety by heading for the left – port side – where they were found.
A source working in the investigation told Italian outlet Corriere: “We found them all on that side.
“We had maps with the layout of the cabins and the positions of the guests, and that’s not where we recovered them.”
The CEO of the firm that built the Bayesian yesterday told The Sun how crew error could be responsible for the disaster aboard the “unsinkable” boat.
Prosecutors from the nearby town of Termini Imerese spent more than two hours quizzing Kiwi Captain James Cutfield, 51, about the tragedy this week.
Who is Mike Lynch?
FORMER billionaire entrepreneur Mike Lynch was found dead on Thursday morning after a £14m luxury yacht capsized in a tornado off the coast of Sicily on Monday morning.
He is thought to be among the five bodies recovered from the sunken boat alongside Morgan Stanley chief Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy, lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda.
The tech tycoon, dubbed “Britain’s Bill Gates”, was one of the 22 people sailing onboard the £166,000 a week vessel.
Lynch, 59, was a serial entrepreneur having founded and sold tech and software companies with one of his biggest being Autonomy Corporation.
He was also been involved in Invoke Capital and cybersecurity company Darktrace.
As well as being awarded an OBE for his services to enterprise in 2006.
Born in Ilford, Lynch had a firefighter father from County Cork and a nurse mother from County Tipperary.
Away from work, Mike was happily married to wife Angela Bacares and the pair had two children together.
Angela is among those who have been rescued on the superyacht.
In 2023, the Sunday Times rich list set the couple’s value at £852m.
But Mike was extradited to the US on fraud charges back in 2023 with a judge setting his bail at £79m.
Just weeks ago, Lynch was acquitted of criminal charges by a jury in San Francisco after a 12-year legal battle over the $11bn sale of his firm, Autonomy, to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
The doomed yacht, named Bayesian, is also said to be owned by the Lynch family.