Divers probing how Bayesian superyacht sank make breakthrough discovery as they retrieve surveillance cameras
DIVERS have recovered video surveillance equipment from Mike Lynch’s Basyesian superyacht that could reveal key details of its sinking.
The entrepreneur and dad-of-two, dubbed “Britain’s Bill Gates“, died alongside his teenage daughter when his superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily on August 19.
Prosecutors investigating the sinking deployed six elite divers from special forces unit “Comsubin” who have made repeated dives down to the sunken vessel.
Divers from the Italian Navy were able to retrieve the surveillance equipment including computers and hard drives.
Now they are to be analysed in specialised labs, according to a report.
The devices will be examined to see if any data can be revealed, or potentially a video showing how the yacht sank – including whether any doors were left open.
This is done by using a hyperbaric chamber.
The captain of the doomed Bayesian, James Cutfield, 51, is being investigated for manslaughter.
Kiwi Cutfield, along with two other members of his crew, are being investigated by Italian authorities for culpable shipwreck and multiple manslaughter.
Prosecutors are also probing ship engineer Tim Parker-Eaton, from Clophill, Beds, and sailor Matthew Griffith, 22 under the same charges.
The investigation does not imply guilt or mean formal charges will be brought against any of the men.
At a press conference at the Termini Imerese Courthouse on Saturday, Chief Prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio said there may have been “behaviours that were not perfectly in order with regard to the responsibility everybody had.”
His team will probe if hatches were left open, allowing water to flood in.
They will also look into whether the crew raised the alarm before escaping.
He vowed to “discover how much they knew and to what extent all the people (passengers) were warned.”
Mr Cartosio added: “There could be in fact the question of homicide. But this is the beginning of the inquiry, we cannot exclude anything at all…We will establish each element’s (crew) responsibility.
“For me, it is probable that offences were committed — that it could be a case of manslaughter.”
The body of Mike Lynch and his four guests, Chris, Neda, Jonathan and Judy were found in the first cabin on the left.
Divers recovered five of the six missing passengers – including Lynch – in one cabin on the left side of the yacht which settled on its right side on the sea floor.
A judicial investigation into the yacht tragedy is ongoing.
The luxury vessel was caught up in a horror storm which caused it to sink in the early hours of the morning.
Of the 22 onboard, 15 survived with 11 including Mike Lynch’s wife rescued on an inflatable life raft.
Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah was the last passenger to be discovered in the third cabin.
The survivors of the wreck, including Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, 57, left Sicily in a private jet last Sunday.
Inside The Bayesian's final 16 minutes
By Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
Data recovered from the Bayesian’s Automatic Identification System (AIS) breaks down exactly how it sank in a painful minute-by-minute timeline.
At 3.50am on Monday August 19 the Bayesian began to shake “dangerously” during a fierce storm, Italian outlet Corriere revealed.
Just minutes later at 3.59am the boat’s anchor gave way, with a source saying the data showed there was “no anchor left to hold”.
After the ferocious weather ripped away the boat’s mooring it was dragged some 358 metres through the water.
By 4am it had began to take on water and was plunged into a blackout, indicating that the waves had reached its generator or even engine room.
At 4.05am the Bayesian fully disappeared underneath the waves.
An emergency GPS signal was finally emitted at 4.06am to the coastguard station in Bari, a city nearby, alerting them that the vessel had sunk.
Early reports suggested the disaster struck around 5am local time off the coast of Porticello Harbour in Palermo, Sicily.
The new data pulled from the boat’s AIS appears to suggest it happened an hour earlier at around 4am.
Some 15 of the 22 onboard were rescued, 11 of them scrambling onto an inflatable life raft that sprung up on the deck.
A smaller nearby boat – named Sir Robert Baden Powell – then helped take those people to shore.