In a tragic incident off the coast of Sicily earlier this week, a luxury yacht carrying Mike Lynch, a tech tycoon of London-Irish descent, and six others sank, leading to their untimely demise. The District Public Prosecutor’s office in Termini Imerese, led by Ambrogio Cartosio, has initiated a manslaughter probe into the incident.
While the investigation does not target any individual specifically, it seeks to unravel the circumstances in which the 56-metre-long yacht, Bayesian, owned by Lynch’s wife’s company, overturned amidst a violent storm at dawn off Porticello near Palermo. The unfortunate incident claimed the life of Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, among others.
On a hopeful note, 15 individuals, including Lynch’s wife, and James Cutfield, the yacht’s skipper, managed to survive. The coast guard has subsequently questioned Cutfield and the rest of the survivors on behalf of the prosecutors, though their accounts of the disaster have not been publicly shared as yet.
Lynch, who had emerged unscathed from an American fraud trial back in June, had arranged the yacht trip as a celebratory measure. The invitation extended to his friends resulted in the unfortunate demise of his legal representative, Chris Morvillo, and Jonathan Bloomer of Morgan Stanley, who had provided a character reference for Lynch during his trial.
Divers recovered Hannah Lynch’s body on Friday after extensively searching the submerged craft over five days. The bodies of the other five passengers were recovered earlier in the week, on Wednesday and Thursday, while the remains of Recaldo Thomas, the sole crew member casualty, were found on Monday.
Cartosio disclosed details about the ongoing probe at a press conference last Saturday. He stated, “The Termini Imerese prosecution is currently exploring shipwreck and manslaughter charges, but we are in the rudimentary stages of the inquiry.” He made it clear that the investigation’s progression is uncertain at this point.
The prosecutor overseeing the case, Raffaele Cammarano, was questioned about how the majority of the crew managed to escape. He responded by stating that they had tried to gather as much data as they could from the crew or survivors. He mentioned that the incident occurred very abruptly and that their investigation would start with the shipwreck’s circumstances, promising to provide more details when they become available.
Cammarano also reported that all the bodies retrieved from the sunken yacht were located in a single cabin that wasn’t theirs. He pointed out that this discovery didn’t conclusively clarify the circumstances, as they were still unsure why all the victims were found in the same cabin.
There were also questions about the existence of a black box and the status of the hatches. Cammarano confessed that they had yet to ascertain precise details concerning the black box due to the challenges involved in accessing certain cabins and the yacht itself. He emphasized that the initial stage of their investigation would focus on validating the existence of such items and retrieving the bodies.
While he couldn’t provide definite answers at this point, Cammarano assured that the facts would be established through subsequent searches among the debris.
A senior coastguard officer expressed that it wasn’t possible to specify the duration it would take to salvage the wreckage. The officer reiterated that removing the fuel tanks took precedence due to their potential environmental impact. Asked for a recovery timeline, Rear Admiral Raffaele Macauda, the maritime director of western Sicily, stated that it relied on the owners’ willingness and the timeline for wreckage recovery. He highlighted that all actions would need approval from port authorities and would run in tandem with the investigation findings. He refrained from confirming estimates made by experts who projected a recovery period of eight weeks.
The initial process requested entailed recovering the shipwreck, following which we can undertake successive actions. Specialist corporations exist to handle operations such as the extraction of fuel tanks, for instance, which is a priority given its ecological ramifications. Subsequent stages and timelines will be determined subsequently.
Mr Lynch’s kin were inconsolable and stunned, relayed a representative for the family on Friday, in their inaugural public statement post the yacht’s descent.
Expressions of sympathy aimed at those impacted by this sad event are shared by the family. An expression of profound gratitude was extended to the Italian seashore guard, emergency teams and every individual who played a part in the rescue operation,” as stipulated in a statement. Respect for their privacy during this period of unimaginable sorrow is all they ask for at this time.
Maritime experts specialising in naval matters are left bemused by the sinking of a vessel like the Bayesian, which was constructed by Perini, the luxury yacht manufacturer based in Italy. The inference was that such a ship ought to have resisted the storm and, under regular circumstances, should not have gone under as swiftly as it did.
The disastrous incident was the outcome of a series of “inexpressible, irrational blunders” on the part of the crew, according to Giovanni Costantino, the CEO of The Italian Sea Group, owner of Perini. He summarily dismissed any speculation about shortcomings in design or construction accounting for this event.
This information was relayed by Reuters/PA.