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Who Was on the Sunken Yacht? Tech Mogul Mike Lynch, His Family and Friends.

Mr. Lynch, the former chief executive of the software firm Autonomy, who was acquitted on fraud charges in June, was with friends and family when the yacht went down in a severe storm.

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By Michael J. de la Merced

Michael de la Merced reported on Mike Lynch’s career and legal battles over the course of 13 years across two continents.

A cruise on the Mediterranean Sea aboard a superyacht was supposed to be a celebratory event for the British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch , who was acquitted in June of fraud charges tied to the sale of his company, Autonomy, to the tech giant Hewlett-Packard.

Instead, it turned into a disaster after the yacht, a 180-foot boat called the Bayesian, sank off the coast of Sicily in a violent storm. Of the 22 passengers aboard, 15 were rescued, six bodies were recovered and one was still missing. Search operations at the site of the sunken yacht were continuing on Thursday.

Here’s what we know about the passengers.

Mike Lynch and his family

Mr. Lynch, 59, is a British software entrepreneur who had once been described as his country’s Bill Gates. He founded the software firm Autonomy, which analyzed clients’ unorganized data, and turned it into one of the most prominent British technology companies of its time. He became a widely known corporate leader, who advised David Cameron, the British prime minister at the time, and joined the board of the BBC.

In 2011, Mr. Lynch sold Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion, which was far above its market value, earning him hundreds of millions. But HP investors almost immediately soured on the transaction, and the American tech giant quickly fired its chief executive — and then Mr. Lynch.

HP later accused Mr. Lynch of misleading it about the state of Autonomy’s business, setting off a decade-long legal ordeal for the British executive, who denied the accusations. U.S. prosecutors charged him and other executives with fraud, and Autonomy’s chief financial officer was convicted in 2018.

Despite appeals to the British government, Mr. Lynch was extradited to the United States last year and was confined to a townhouse in San Francisco ahead of his criminal trial, which began in March. Facing the possibility of decades in prison if convicted, Mr. Lynch and another colleague were instead acquitted of all charges.

Mr. Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, 57, accompanied him on the yacht, and she was rescued on Monday when it sank. She was a consistent presence at his trial in the United States. Records show that she controlled Revtom, the company listed as the owner of the Bayesian.

Hannah Lynch, Mr. Lynch and Ms. Bacares’s 18-year-old daughter, was also on the yacht and was among those who were still missing.

The other guests

Among those unaccounted for is Jonathan Bloomer, 70, chair of Morgan Stanley’s international arm and the chairman of Hiscox, an insurance provider that trades on the London Stock Exchange. His wife, Judy Bloomer, 71, is also listed as missing.

“Our thoughts are with all those affected, in particular the Bloomer family, as we all wait for further news from this terrible situation,” Morgan Stanley said in a statement.

Christopher J. Morvillo, 59, a New York-based partner at the international law firm Clifford Chance, is also among those missing. A former federal prosecutor who comes from a family of prominent lawyers, Mr. Morvillo represented Mr. Lynch during his criminal trial in San Francisco. His wife, Neda, 57, was with him on the yacht and is also among those confirmed as missing.

“We are in shock and deeply saddened by this tragic incident,” a representative of Clifford Chance said in a statement.

Survivors include Charlotte Golunski, a partner at Mr. Lynch’s venture firm, Invoke Capital; Ms. Golunski’s husband, James Emslie; and their 1-year-old daughter Sophie. Also rescued were Ayla Ronald, a lawyer at Clifford Chance, and her partner, Matthew Fletcher.

The yacht had a crew of 10, and nine were rescued. The body of the chef, Recaldo Thomas, was recovered from the water, the Sicilian Civil Protection Department said.

Elisabetta Povoledo contributed reporting, and Kitty Bennett and Susan Campbell Beachy contributed research.

Michael J. de la Merced has covered global business and finance news for The Times since 2006. More about Michael J. de la Merced

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Who are Mike Lynch and the other people missing after a yacht sank in Sicily?

Bill Chappell

Mike Lynch remains missing after a luxury yacht sank off of Sicily's coast. Lynch, who sold his tech firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in 2011, had recently been acquitted of fraud charges related to the sale. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images hide caption

Search teams are scouring waters along Italy’s southwestern shore, where a luxury sailing yacht sank early Monday. Six people are known to be missing, including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his daughter, and Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife.

Faced with the possibility that some people might have been trapped inside the ship when it sank in a storm, dive teams (including cave divers from the local fire brigade) have been looking for ways to enter the vessel.

Divers recover at least 1 body during search of yacht wreckage off Sicily

The Palermo Coast Guard told NPR on Tuesday that such an operation is complicated by the depth and position of the hull, which lies on the seabed at a depth of around 50 meters, about a half-mile from the port in Porticello, Sicily.

Lynch, a mathematician and longtime tech entrepreneur, was on a vacation voyage that apparently doubled as a celebration of his recent acquittal on federal fraud charges in the U.S. At least two members of his legal team were reportedly on the boat.

Here’s what we know about Lynch and the tragic situation off Sicily’s coast: 

A rescue boat of the Italian Coast Guard operates in Porticello near Palermo, on Tuesday, a day after the British-flagged luxury yacht Bayesian sank. Specialist divers launched a fresh search for six people, including U.K. tech tycoon Mike Lynch. Alberto Pizzoli/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Who is Mike Lynch?

Lynch, 59, made his name as the founder and longtime leader of Autonomy, a search engine and software company that helped companies manage information. Hewlett-Packard bought Autonomy for $11 billion in 2011, but Lynch then faced accusations — and then federal charges — that he had misrepresented his company’s financial health and prospects. Lynch denied the claims, saying HP was blaming him for its own problems.

Lynch was indicted on multiple fraud and conspiracy counts in late 2018, months after Autonomy’s former chief financial officer, Sushovan Hussain, was convicted of fraud (he was later sentenced to five years in prison).

Search resumes for British tech magnate and 5 others after yacht sinks off Sicily

Lynch successfully delayed extradition from the U.K. until May 2023 . Earlier this year, the case finally culminated in a lengthy trial in San Francisco that ended with Lynch’s acquittal of all charges against him in June , after he testified on his own behalf.

Also acquitted was Stephen Chamberlain, Autonomy’s former finance VP. But on Saturday — just two days before Lynch was caught in a boating catastrophe — Chamberlain was killed in a car accident , after he was struck while out for a run.

Lynch earned a Ph.D. in adaptive pattern recognition from Cambridge University. In 2006, he was awarded an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) honor for his work in the U.K.’s tech industry. After selling Autonomy, he founded an investment group focused on startups emerging from Cambridge University.

Who else was aboard?

Survivors include Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, along with Charlotte Golunski, who works at Invoke Capital, Lynch’s venture capital firm. Golunski was on the ship with her daughter, Sofia, who had just celebrated her first birthday. In an interview with La Repubblica , Golunski said she held her little girl as she floated in darkness, using all her strength to keep her arms up and prevent Sofia from drowning. Sophia’s father was also onboard and survived.

Ayla Ronald, a lawyer who worked on Lynch’s fraud case, and her partner also escaped the wreck. Other survivors include several crew members, including two women in their early 20s who were part of the ship’s staff.

Missing along with Lynch and Bloomer are Lynch’s daughter, Hannah, 18; Bloomer’s wife, Judy; a lawyer for Lynch named Chris Morvillo; and his wife, Neda, according to local newspaper Giornale di Sicilia .

Bloomer was a partner at Arthur Andersen for some 20 years, until 1994, according to his LinkedIn profile . He then led the financial services company Prudential before taking on a number of chairman roles, including at the legal services firm DWF.

Bloomer is also currently chairman of insurance company the Hiscox Group.

“We are deeply shocked and saddened by this tragic event,” Hiscox CEO Aki Hussain said in a statement sent to NPR. “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.”  

#Palermo , naufragio imbarcazione a Porticello: proseguono da parte dei #vigilidelfuoco le ricerche delle 6 persone segnalate come disperse. Giunti da Cagliari, Sassari e Roma i #sommozzatori speleo [ #19agosto 19:30] pic.twitter.com/7WY30ckxcK — Vigili del Fuoco (@vigilidelfuoco) August 19, 2024

What happened to the yacht?

The gathering took place aboard a massive sailing yacht called Bayesian — a term that, in mathematics and statistics, refers to probability and uncertainty. The yacht’s overall length is listed at 55.9 meters (183 feet).

The Bayesian was off the coast of Porticello when it was swamped by a violent storm before dawn on Monday morning. Numerous eyewitness accounts cited a waterspout — a highly localized spiraling storm that’s essentially a marine tornado. Around that time, the Bayesian was located in the Tyrrhenian Sea, according to the Marine Traffic tracking site.

The ship, which had 22 people aboard, sank. In the aftermath, 15 people were rescued, but one died and six were unaccounted for.  

What about the rescue effort?

Helicopters and marine craft have been searching for any sign of the passengers, hoping to find more survivors. Sea and cave divers have also been part of the effort.

Italy’s fire brigade, Vigili del Fuoco, says it is working on a plan for divers to enter the sunken vessel. An initial attempt on Monday was cut short after divers were able to gain only limited access , citing furniture that blocked a passageway.

When asked about the possibility of finding any other survivors of the calamity, Comandante Vincenzo Zagarola of the Italian Coast Guard told radio station RTL 102.5 on Tuesday that given how much time has elapsed, it’s difficult to imagine a good outcome for the missing passengers. But, he said, the search will continue.

Who are the six missing in luxury yacht disaster off Sicily?

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MIKE LYNCH AND DAUGHTER HANNAH

Jonathan bloomer and wife judy bloomer, christopher morvillo and wife neda morvillo.

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Reporting by Catarina Demony; Additional reporting by Sachin Ravikumar, Andres Estebaran and Sam Tobin; Editing by Sharon Singleton

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Catarina is a UK-based breaking news correspondent. She previously worked as a multimedia journalist in Portugal and Spain, where she covered everything from elections to natural disasters. Catarina has previous experience in TV and local journalism, co-founded a project telling the stories of Portuguese-speakers living in London, edited a youth-led news site and worked for several NGOs. She recently produced a documentary about transatlantic slavery and its legacies in today's society.

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Missing revealed as divers search superyacht that sank in storm off Sicily

ROME — Rescue teams and divers were searching Tuesday for six missing people, including a British tech magnate and a Morgan Stanley boss, after a luxury superyacht sank in a storm off Sicily .

The identity of those still missing emerged after an initial search of the 184-foot sailboat, named the Bayesian, was unsuccessful Monday. The British-flagged tourist vessel had 22 people aboard when it sank because of “a violent storm” off Sicily’s main city, Palermo, around 5 a.m. local time (11 p.m. ET) on Monday, the local coast guard said.

Newly released video shows the moment the vessel suddenly sank after being battered by the storm. In the video, the 250-foot mast, which was lit up and lashed by the storm, appears to bend to one side before it disappears and is replaced by darkness.

The grainy images obtained by NBC News and other outlets were recorded on closed-circuit television not far from where the Bayesian was anchored.

Fifteen people were rescued by a boat present in the immediate vicinity and then brought ashore by coast guard vessels, but six passengers, including American, British and Canadian citizens, remained missing, it said. They were believed to be trapped in the boat's hull, some 164 feet underwater, posing a challenge to divers who returned Tuesday to the site off Porticello, near Palermo.

Salvatore Cocina, director of Sicily’s Civil Protection Agency, told NBC News that the missing include British tech magnate Mike Lynch and his daughter, Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, and Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife.

Cocina did not specify the nationalities of the missing. He also did not identify Lynch's daughter or the wives of Bloomer and Morvillo.

A spokesperson for Clifford Chance, where Morvillo works as a lawyer, confirmed to NBC News on Tuesday that he and his wife, Neda, were among the missing. 

Aki Hussain, chief executive officer of U.K. insurance company Hiscox, where Bloomer is a nonexecutive chairman, confirmed to NBC News on Tuesday that Bloomer and his wife, Judy, were missing.

Italy’s national fire department said that its divers were able to get inside the wreck during a late-night dive Monday, inspecting some cabins under the bridge, but were having trouble navigating because of obstructions and narrow access gates. One of those obstructions was reported to have been caused by furniture from the cabins that moved during the storm that struck the ship early Monday.

Rescuers said that there might be bodies inside the cabins, especially considering the timing of the storm, but that they had so far been unable to check through the ship’s portholes.

Divers were forced to work in 12-minute underwater search shifts because of the depth, while surface searches continued in the area of ​​the shipwreck with a helicopter and a fire brigade boat, it added.

Mike Lynch, who was regularly described in U.K. media as “Britain’s Bill Gates,” was cleared of fraud charges in a blockbuster U.S. trial earlier this summer. Sources told CNBC on Monday that his wife, Angela Bacares, has been rescued. Italian news agency ANSA identified his daughter, missing alongside her father, as Hannah, 18.

Just days earlier, Lynch's co-defendant, Stephen Chamberlain, died after being “fatally struck by a car” while out running Saturday, his lawyer Gary Lincenberg said in an emailed statement.

The sailing vacation that ended in tragedy appeared to be something of a celebration after Lynch’s acquittal — Morvillo was one of Lynch’s U.S. lawyers and Bloomer testified in his defense.

“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,” Hussain, the Hiscox CEO, said in an emailed statement.

A Morgan Stanley spokesperson also said: “Our thoughts are with all those affected, in particular the Bloomer family, as we all wait for further news from this terrible situation.”

The Eve Appeal, a British cancer charity, described Judy Bloomer in an emailed statement as “a brilliant champion for women’s health and medical research.”

Britain's Marine Accident Investigation Branch said it was deploying a team of four inspectors to Palermo to conduct a preliminary assessment.

The coast guard said in a statement Monday that the ship’s cook had died. It did not give his nationality. Reuters identified him as Antiguan citizen Ricardo Thomas.

One of the survivors, identified as Charlotte Emsley, 35, told the Italian news agency ANSA that she had momentarily lost hold of her year-old daughter, Sofia, in the water but managed to retrieve her and hold her up over the waves until a lifeboat inflated and they were pulled to safety.

Built by Italian shipbuilder Perini Navi in 2008, the U.K.-registered, Bayesian can carry 12 guests and a crew of up to 10, according to online specialist yacht sites.

The yacht’s nearly 250-foot mast is the tallest aluminum sailing mast in the world, according to CharterWorld Luxury Yacht Charters. 

Luca Mercalli, an Italian climatologist and president of the country’s meteorological society, told Reuters that the storm could have involved a waterspout, essentially a tornado over water, or a downburst, a more frequent phenomenon that doesn’t involve the rotation of the air.

Storms and heavy rainfall have swept Italy in recent days after weeks of scorching heat.

“The sea surface temperature around Sicily was around 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit), which is almost 3 degrees more than normal,” Mercalli said. “This creates an enormous source of energy that contributes to these storms.”

Claudio Lavanga reported from Rome and Yuliya Talmazan from London.

What is known about the sinking of a luxury yacht off the coast of Sicily and those aboard

Specialist cave divers working in 12-minute underwater shifts are searching for six missing passengers and crew, including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, believed to be in the submerged wreck of a luxury yacht that was slammed by a powerful storm and ...

PORTICELLO, Sicily -- Specialist cave divers working in 12-minute underwater shifts were searching Tuesday for six missing passengers and crew, including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, believed to be in the submerged wreck of a luxury yacht that was slammed by a powerful storm and swiftly sank off Sicily.

The sleek yacht, named the Bayesian, was carrying a crew of 10 people and 12 passengers when it suddenly sank near the Mediterranean island that is part of Italy at about 4 a.m. on Monday. One body has been recovered and 15 people survived.

Fire rescue officials have said the six believed to remain in the sailboat's hull will be considered missing until they are located in the wreckage.

Here's what we know so far about the sinking and those who were on board.

Italian civil protection officials believe a sudden and fierce storm that battered the coast of Sicily in the early hours of Monday whipped up a waterspout in the exact spot where the 56-meter (184-foot) British-flagged Bayesian was moored.

Karsten Borner, the captain of another yacht moored nearby, said he saw the Bayesian during the storm but when the wild weather passed it was gone and he saw only a red flare lighting the night sky, the Italian news agency ANSA and the Giornale di Sicilia newspaper reported.

Borner and one of his crew boarded their tender and found a lifeboat carrying 15 people, some of them injured. They took them aboard their yacht and alerted the coast guard.

Rescue authorities said the wreck was resting at a depth of 50 meters (163 feet) about a half mile offshore of the picturesque fishing village of Porticello.

Among the missing is 59-year-old tech tycoon Mike Lynch , sometimes described as the British Bill Gates. Lynch was acquitted in June of all charges in a U.S. fraud trial linked to the $11 billion sale of his software company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.

Lynch still faced a potentially huge bill stemming from a civil case in London that HP mostly won during 2022. Damages haven’t been determined in that case, but HP is seeking $4 billion. Lynch made more than $800 million from the Autonomy sale.

A Cambridge-educated mathematician, Lynch made his name running Autonomy, which made a search engine that could pore through emails and other internal business documents to help companies find vital information more quickly.

Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah was reportedly among the missing. His wife, Angela Bacares, and 14 other people survived.

Among others still missing Tuesday, according to the civil protection agency, were one of Lynch’s U.S. lawyers, Christopher Morvillo of Clifford Chance, and Morvillo’s wife, Neda. Morvillo was regarded as an elite defense lawyer and was also a federal prosecutor in New York after 9/11.

Also missing was Jonathan Bloomer, the non-executive chairman of Morgan Stanley International, and his wife, Judy. He is the former head of the Autonomy audit committee and testified for the defense at Lynch’s trial.

Bloomer was also chair of the Hiscox Group, an insurer that does business on the Lloyd’s of London market.

“We are deeply shocked and saddened by this tragic event,” Hiscox CEO Aki Hussain said in a statement.

Among the survivors was Charlotte Golunski, who said she momentarily lost hold of her 1-year-old daughter Sofia in the water, but then managed to grab her and hold her up over the waves until a lifeboat inflated and they were both pulled to safety, ANSA reported. The father, identified by ANSA as James Emslie, also survived.

The Dutch foreign ministry said a Dutch man survived. The ministry, citing privacy, did not release his identity.

One body was recovered on Monday, identified as the on-board chef.

The Bayesian was a luxury yacht built in 2008 by the Italian firm Perini Nav. It was known for its single 75-meter (246-feet) aluminum mast — one of the world’s tallest. Online charter sites listed it for rent for up to 195,000 euros (about $215,000) a week.

Its registered owner is listed as Revtom Ltd., based on the Isle of Man, according to online maritime database Equasis. Lynch’s wife is listed as Revtom’s sole owner, according to corporate registration documents from the Isle of Man.

The yacht's name is an apparent reference to “Bayesian inference,” one of the two main approaches to statistical machine learning and the one that was used by Autonomy.

Waterspouts are tornadoes that form over water and can happen when a storm moves across warm water.

According to the U.S. National Ocean Service, there are two types of waterspouts — fair-weather and tornadic.

Tornadic waterspouts “have the same characteristics as a land tornado. They are associated with severe thunderstorms, and are often accompanied by high winds and seas, large hail, and frequent dangerous lightning,” the service says on its website.

While scientists haven’t attributed the specific event to climate change, average monthly surface temperatures have been at record highs for months . Hotter air can hold more moisture, making heavier storms more likely.

Sicily has been baking under intense heat this summer , and the United Nations’ panel of climate change experts notes the Mediterranean Sea is particularly vulnerable to climate change, with warming rates roughly 20% higher than the global average.

Experts say it is extraordinarily rare for a luxury sailboat of this size to capsize due to weather events.

“This just doesn’t happen. You know, boats sink because things like keels fall off, or they run aground and breach the hull ... whereas just from a weather angle, a boat that big being pushed over on its side is absolutely extraordinary,” said Skip Novak, a lifelong sailor who has taken part in multiple round the world yacht races and written books about sailing.

Novak said he believed that strong gusts likely pushed the yacht over 90 degrees to its side, and the vessel did not recover because of the weight of the huge mast and because it was anchored. He suggested that internal doors were likely not closed, and water quickly poured in to sink the vessel.

“When you’re at anchor, even if it’s blowing with a storm in the Mediterranean, you rarely shut the whole boat down because nobody expects something like this to happen," Novak told The Associated Press. “So if the boat wasn’t completely watertight at the deck, you’d have flooding going in. It would take a couple minutes and that would be it."

As the search for the missing continues, authorities already have begun trying to piece together exactly what happened.

Prosecutors from the Sicilian town of Termini Imerese have opened an investigation, as is normal in such events even when no suspects are identified. To date, they have not commented publicly.

The British Marine Accident Investigation Branch said four of its inspectors were being deployed to Palermo.

Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands. Associated Press writer Sylvia Hui in London contributed to this report.

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Luxury yacht sinks off Sicily, leaving U.K. tech magnate Mike Lynch, 2 Americans among those missing

By Anna Matranga

Updated on: August 20, 2024 / 7:47 PM EDT / CBS News

Rome  — Six people, including two U.S. nationals, a British technology entrepreneur and one of his daughters, were still missing Tuesday after a large luxury sailing yacht sank off the coast of the southern Italian island of Sicily during a violent storm. The 184-foot Bayesian had been anchored about half a mile off the port of Porticello, near Palermo, with 22 people on board — 10 crew members and 12 passengers.

The vessel sank at about 5 a.m. local time (11 p.m. Eastern, Sunday) after being hit by a possible waterspout spawned by the storm. Italian media said the winds snapped the boat's single mast, unbalancing the vessel and causing it to capsize.

Fifteen of those on board managed to escape the yacht and were rescued by a Dutch-flagged vessel that was anchored in the immediate vicinity. They were brought ashore by Italian Coast Guard and firefighters.

One body — an unidentified male — was recovered, but six people remained missing, including British software magnate Mike Lynch, once described as Britain's Bill Gates. 

Lynch was acquitted in June of fraud charges in the U.S. that could have landed him with a decades-long prison sentence. In an unusual twist, Lynch's co-defendant in that fraud case, who was also acquitted, died Saturday after being hit by a car while out jogging in England.

Lynch's teenage daughter Hannah was also among those missing, along with Lynch's American lawyer Chris Morvillo, a former assistant district attorney in New York, and his wife Neda. British banker Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International, was also still missing Tuesday.

Among the survivors was a 1-year-old British girl who was being treated at a nearby hospital along with her parents. They were doing well, according to Italian media.

"For two seconds I lost my child to the sea, then I immediately was able to grab her again in the fury of the waves," the girl's mother, identified only as Charlotte, was quoted as saying by Italy's ANSA news agency. "I held on to her tightly in the stormy sea. Many were screaming. Luckily the life raft opened up and 11 of us managed to get aboard."

"It was terrible," she told ANSA. "In just a few minutes the boat was hit by a very strong wind, and sunk soon thereafter."

Karsten Borner, the captain of the Dutch vessel that came to the rescue, told ANSA he had been anchored near the Bayesian.

"When the storm was over we noticed that the ship behind us was gone, and then we saw a red flare, so my first mate and I went to the position and we found this life raft drifting, and in the life raft was also a little baby and the wife of the owner."

Recovery efforts were back underway Tuesday, with speedboats, helicopters and divers continuing to search for the missing — as well as for answers, as to how a state-of-the-art superyacht could disappear in a flash. 

According to Italian media, Fire Brigade divers reached the boat and saw bodies trapped inside some of the cabins, but they had been unable to recover any of the victims from inside the vessel by Tuesday, due to obstructions. The Bayesian appeared to have sunk in an area with a depth of about 160 feet.

Witnesses said the boat sank quickly. 

"I was at home when the tornado hit," fisherman Pietro Asciutto told a local news outlet. "I immediately closed all the windows. Then I saw the boat, it had only one mast, it was very large. I suddenly saw it sink... The boat was still floating, then suddenly it disappeared. I saw it sink with my own eyes."

The director-general of Sicily's civil protection agency, Salvatore Cocina, confirmed to CBS News partner BBC News  that three of the six people still missing Monday were British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, whose company Autonomy Corporation PLC was acquired in 2011 by HP ; one of his daughters, Hannah Lynch, who is believed to be 18; and the boat's chef, Ricardo Thomas.

CBS News has seen corporate documentation showing a company called Revtom, solely owned by Lynch's wife Angela Bacares, who was among those rescued from the accident, as the owner of the yacht that capsized off Sicily. 

While the yacht was a privately owned pleasure boat, the waters around the island have claimed many lives over the last decade.

Dozens of migrants have died attempting to reach Sicily and smaller Italian islands in the region. Sicily sits only about 100 miles from the east coast of Tunisia in north Africa, and the Mediterranean crossing has been a frequent site of both nautical rescues and disasters as smugglers routinely send small boats overloaded with desperate people into the sea.

Alex Sundby , Joanne Stocker and Chris Livesay contributed to this report.

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Superyacht sinks latest: Tech tycoon Mike Lynch's body among five identified; 'unlikely' missing daughter thrown from boat

Five bodies have been found and now identified in the search for those missing after a yacht sank off the Sicily coast, including that of tech tycoon Mike Lynch. An expert says it is unlikely his daughter, who remains unaccounted for, is not inside the vessel.

Thursday 22 August 2024 18:25, UK

• Superyacht sinking

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• Five bodies found in search of superyacht wreckage, taking number of confirmed deaths to six
• Family of Jonathan and Judy Bloomer describe 'unimaginable grief'
• Tech tycoon Mike Lynch confirmed dead - but daughter still missing
• 'Unlikely' that Hannah Lynch was thrown from Bayesian
• Search for her enters fourth day
• Superyacht maker says boat was 'unsinkable'
• Ashna Hurynag in Sicily:  Search 'almost certainly' moves to recovery for tycoon's daughter
• Watch: CCTV captures yacht seconds before it sinks
• Explained: Inside the superyacht
• Live reporting by Mark Wyatt and (earlier)  Katie Williams

The boss of the firm which makes and sells vessels like Mike Lynch's sunken superyacht has questioned why its crew were not in a "state of alert" when a storm hit.

Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, which owns the company that makes the Perini vessels, said they "are absolutely safe", suggesting human error was behind the boat going down.

He told Sky News the "event" that capsized the British-flagged luxury yacht Bayesian off the coast of Porticello, Sicily, on Monday "could have been managed with an average amount of attention".

The families of US lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda, have released a statement after the couple were confirmed to have died when the yacht capsized and sank.

The statement reads: "We are completely devastated by the passing of Chris and Neda, and our collective hearts go out to all the families who have also been affected by this senseless tragedy.

"Chris and Neda were each widely respected for their professional successes, Chris as a distinguished attorney and Neda as a skilled jewellery designer, but their true talents were that of mother and father, son and daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt and dear friends to so many. 

"Neda and Chris lived their lives as devoted, loving parents who always put their daughters and families first. Their passing is a tremendous loss for our family and for the countless people who knew and loved them both.

"We extend our deepest gratitude to the Italian rescue services for their unwavering dedication and to Clifford Chance for all the support they have provided.

"As we grieve this enormous loss, our primary focus remains on Chris and Neda's daughters and other loved ones, and we respectfully request privacy."

Mike Lynch knew he would likely spend the rest of his life in federal prison if he lost his US fraud trial, says a journalist who covered the case.

The British tech tycoon, who today was confirmed to be one of the casualties of Monday's superyacht sinking in Sicily, was cleared of fraud charges he faced over the $11bn (£8.6bn) sale of his software firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.

Mr Lynch had been accused of inflating the value of Autonomy ahead of its sale but was found not guilty on all counts by a jury in San Francisco.

He faced more than 20 years in prison if convicted, with Sunday Times journalist Danny Fortson, who interviewed Mr Lynch last month, telling Sky News that the businessman framed his potential conviction as a "near-death experience".

He said: "I was with him for about two and a half hours after covering the 12-week trial throughout, and he was really just kind of reeling in a good way, trying to process the fact that he actually had got this new lease on life.

"He really framed it all as almost having this kind of near-death experience of knowing that he was probably going to lose this case, and if he lost it, he would probably spend the rest of his life in a federal prison far away from his family and his loved ones. 

"And then to win this case and then 73 days later, after having, as you say in his words, getting a second life, to have it end so tragically, it's hard to believe."

Mike Lynch had considered selling the Bayesian superyacht earlier this year but changed his mind when acquitted in a major fraud trial in the US, according to a report.

The billionaire businessman put the vessel up for sale in March but later withdrew it in July, after being cleared in June,  the Telegraph reports.

Industry sources reportedly told the newspaper that he'd planned to spend the summer on the yacht before assessing whether to try and sell it again in autumn.

A businessman who knew Jonathan Bloomer for more than 20 years has described him as a "very humble" man who always had time to help people.

Andrew Carrett told Sky News the bank chairman was a "very supportive individual" and "very generous with his time".

"I think a lot of people would echo that. I think he's going to be a great loss," he said.

Mr Carrett added that you "don't expect to wave goodbye to people on holiday, you expect to see them two or three weeks later coming back through the door with their cases".

"It's very tragic what's happened. Clearly he will be missed."

Mr Bloomer, whose body was identified today along with four others who were onboard the Bayesian superyacht, has helped other businesses to grow as well as well as supporting charities over his career, Mr Carrett said.

"He's a very humble individual in some ways... he will be greatly missed by a lot of people."

Jonathan Bloomer was a "friend and mentor to many", the chief executive of Morgan Stanley has said.

Mr Bloomer and his wife Judy are among the six people to have been confirmed to have died after the sinking of the Bayesian.

Ted Pick said: "We are deeply saddened by this tragic news.

"Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with the Bloomer family and all those affected by this tragedy.

"Jonathan's leadership and experience helped the firm manage a period of complex change for our international businesses.

"He has been a friend and mentor to many and we will all greatly miss his wise counsel and spirit of kindness."

Mike Lynch was a "remarkable" man who lost 12 years of his life to a "pointless legal argument", his friend and business partner has said.

In a new interview with Sky News, David Tabizel, who co-founded Autonomy with Mr Lynch, said the tycoon had an "inner child", loved video games and had a life-sized train set in his garden.

"He had a remarkable set of personality traits which we rarely see in Britain," he added, saying Mr Lynch's "lower-middle class background" contributed to his "hunger and ambition".

"He was very, very, very focused on the truth, which is why it was so difficult and so strange seeing what happened to him the last 12 years," Mr Tabizel said.

Mr Tabizel said the lengthy legal case against Mr Lynch - which started when Hewlett-Packard accused him of fraud by overstating the value of Autonomy when he sold it to them in 2011 - reminded him of "the Post Office scandal" but against one man.

"I never heard him lie. I never heard him exaggerate. He was interested in truth," he said. 

"To me, it reminds me of the Post Office scandal. But this time against one man... with a brain the size of a planet and hundreds of millions of pounds in the bank."

Mr Tabizel said his friend's death was "such a loss" for his family.

"We should be celebrating his legacy, and to lose the last 12 years of this wonderful man's life for a pointless legal argument, which comes down to nothing more than greed - it's crazy," he said.

Paying tribute to Mr Lynch, Mr Tabizel said: "I love that man. And and he should be celebrated as a hero."

The family of Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy, have released a statement after the couple were confirmed to have died in the yacht disaster.

The statement reads: "We are grieving for our loved ones and all of those affected by the tragedy.

"We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the emergency services and everyone who helped tirelessly in this rescue operation.

"Our parents were incredible people and an inspiration to many, but first and foremost they were focused on and loved their family and spending time with their new grandchildren.

"Together for five decades, our only comfort is that they are still together now.

"This is an unimaginable grief to shoulder. Our only ask is that our family's privacy is respected at this time."

BBC director-general Tim Davie says the corporation is "deeply saddened by the awful news" that at least six people have died in the yacht disaster.

"Mike Lynch was an outstanding BBC director who made a major contribution during his time on the board, from 2007 to 2012," he said in a statement.

"Wise, generous and insightful, he played a particularly key role in accelerating our transformation as a digital organisation.

"Our thoughts are with his family and all others involved."

Questions have been raised about whether the sunken yacht will be salvaged in the investigation into the incident.

Earlier, the Italian coastguard said a decision on whether to raise the vessel from the seabed was "not a topic on the agenda" at the moment - but "will be" in the future.

Nick Barke, head of salvage operations at Boats.co.uk, a boat sales and services company, said the "only real way of knowing" why the yacht sank would be to lift it to the surface.

However, he acknowledged this would be an "expensive and complicated process".

On what that process would be, Mr Barke said divers would attach straps to the boat before hauling it upright and bringing it out of the water.

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Body of British tech entrepreneur Lynch retrieved from sunken yacht, says official

PORTICELLO, Italy – The body of British tech magnate Mike Lynch was retrieved on Aug 22 from the wreck of a yacht that sank earlier this week off Sicily during a storm, Mr Massimo Mariani, an interior ministry official, told Reuters.

Mr Lynch’s daughter, the last person unaccounted for after the shipwreck, is still missing, Mr Mariani said, adding that she may be inside the wreck or could have been tossed into the sea as the boat sank.

On Aug 21, four bodies were retrieved from the wreck and transported to nearby hospitals, in the city of Palermo.

The Italian authorities did not officially identify the corpses, but Britain’s Daily Telegraph reported that two of the dead were Mr Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter. Italy’s Corriere della Sera said the only bodies identified so far were Morgan Stanley banker Jonathan Bloomer and US lawyer Chris Morvillo.

Search efforts for bodies missing from the sunken yacht resumed early on Aug 22.

The British-flagged Bayesian, a 56m-long superyacht carrying 22 passengers and crew, was anchored off the port of Porticello, near Palermo, when it disappeared beneath the waves in a matter of minutes after a fierce storm struck.

Fifteen people, including Mr Lynch’s wife, managed to escape from the boat before it capsized, while the body of the on-board chef, Canadian-Antiguan national Recaldo Thomas, was found near the wreck hours after the disaster.

Operations have been challenging due to the depth and the narrowness of the places that the divers are scouring, the fire brigade said in a statement.

It compared the efforts to those carried out, on a larger scale, for the Costa Concordia, the luxury cruise liner that capsized off the Italian island of Giglio in January 2012, killing 32 people.

The disaster has baffled naval marine experts, who said such a vessel, built by Italian high-end yacht manufacturer Perini and presumed to have top-class fittings and safety features, should have been able to withstand such weather.

Prosecutors in the nearby town of Termini Imerese have opened an investigation and authorities have started questioning passengers and witnesses.

The captain and crew have made no official comment on the disaster.

Mr Giovanni Constantino, CEO of the Italian Sea Group, which includes Perini, said the Bayesian was “one of the safest boats in the world” and basically unsinkable.

He added that he believed the disaster was caused by a chain of human mistakes and that the storm had been expected, in interviews with Italian media.

“The ship sank because it took on water, from where, investigators will have to say,” Mr Costantino told television news programme TG1 late on Aug 21.

Citing data from the yacht's automatic tracking and based on available footage, Mr Costantino said it took 16 minutes from when the wind began buffeting the yacht and began taking on water to when it sink.

Mr Costantino said the Milan-listed group had suffered “enormous damage” to its reputation, with shares falling 2.5 per cent since the disaster. REUTERS

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Factbox-Who Are the Six Missing in Luxury Yacht Disaster off Sicily

Rescue boats operate on the sea to search for the missing, including British entrepreneur Mike Lynch, after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of Porticello, near the Sicilian city of Palermo, Italy August 20, 2024. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane

By Catarina Demony

LONDON (Reuters) - An intense storm sank a luxury yacht off Sicily's coast on Monday, killing one man and leaving six missing, including British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his daughter. Fifteen people escaped before the yacht sank.

Here are details about the missing passengers.

MIKE LYNCH AND DAUGHTER HANNAH

Tech entrepreneur Lynch built Britain's biggest software company, Autonomy. Often dubbed Britain's Bill Gates, the 59-year-old was lauded by shareholders, scientists and politicians when he sold it to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011.

But in late 2012, HP said it had found a massive accounting scandal at the business, and wrote off $8.8 billion of its value. Lynch spent the next 12 years trying to clear his name and was acquitted on all criminal charges just weeks ago in the United States.

After the sale of Autonomy, Lynch founded Invoke Capital, a technology venture capital fund.

Lynch's daughter Hannah, 18, is also missing. A Sunday Times profile of Lynch last month said Hannah was preparing to study English literature at the University of Oxford.

His wife, Angela Bacares, who owns the vessel, was also aboard it but was rescued.

JONATHAN BLOOMER AND WIFE JUDY BLOOMER

Jonathan Bloomer appeared as a character witness in Lynch's legal case earlier this year. Bloomer has been non-executive chair of Morgan Stanley International since 2016, and is the chair of international specialist insurer, Hiscox.

He was also chief executive of insurance and investment company Prudential from 2000 to 2005.

He studied physics at London's Imperial College in the 1970s, according to his LinkedIn profile.

One of Bloomer's former employees wrote on LinkedIn he was "always a friendly, approachable and engaging man".

Hiscox Chief Executive Aki Hussain said in a statement on Tuesday they were deeply shocked and saddened and their thoughts were with all those affected, in particular Bloomer and his wife Judy, who was also aboard the yacht.

Judy, who studied English language and literature at Homerton College in Cambridge, has worked as a psychotherapist for nearly 30 years, specialising in anxiety and stress. She started her career as a teacher.

CHRISTOPHER MORVILLO AND WIFE NEDA MORVILLO

American Christopher Morvillo, a partner at law firm Clifford Chance in New York City, was part of Lynch's defence team, fighting a long legal battle to acquit his client. His first ever post on LinkedIn was around two months ago to celebrate the court victory.

"None of this would have been possible without your love and support," Morvillo wrote to his family in the post, including his wife, Neda Morvillo.

Before joining Clifford Chance in November 2011, Morvillo worked as a principal at Morvillo Abramowitz Grand Iason & Anello PC, providing advice on white collar criminal defence and regulatory matters.

Morvillo, who studied law at Fordham University, also worked as an assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of New York between 1999 and 2005, assisting in the criminal investigation arising out of the Sept. 11 attacks.

David Oscar Markus, a criminal defence lawyer and podcast host, interviewed Morvillo last week. He wrote a blog describing him as a "superstar lawyer".

"Chris dedicated over a decade of his career to obtaining justice for Mike Lynch," Markus wrote. "He got it and then for this to happen.... it's tough to find the right words."

Morvillo's wife, Neda, is the owner of a luxury jewellery line under her maiden name, Neda Nassiri. According to the company's website, she has been designing and hand-crafting jewellery in New York for over two decades.

(Reporting by Catarina Demony; Additional reporting by Sachin Ravikumar, Andres Estebaran and Sam Tobin; Editing by Sharon Singleton)

Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters .

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Sicily Yacht Sinking: Identities Revealed of People Missing After Violent Storm

One day after a superyacht was sunk off sicily, local authorities have confirmed the identities of the six passengers that remain missing, including tech mogul mike lynch and his daughter hannah..

Additional details are emerging about the tragedy in Sicily.

After a super yacht was sunk by a storm while anchored off the Italian island August 19, authorities have confirmed the identities of the six still-missing passengers.

British tech mogul Mike Lynch and his daughter, Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, as well as Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife remain missing, Director of Sicily’s Civil Protection Agency Salvatore Cocina told NBC News .

While Cocina did not share the names of Lynch’s daughter, nor Morvillo and Bloomers’ spouses, the latter two have been identified as Judy Bloomer and Neda Morvillo by their husband’s employers.

Cocina previously confirmed Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares had been rescued. Their 18-year-old daughter Hannah remains among the missing passengers, per NBC News .

While the six passengers are still missing, the body of the ship’s cook, identified by Antiguan News Room as Antiguan citizen Ricardo Thomas , was previously retrieved from the water.

Lynch had been cleared of fraud charges related to Hewlett Packard's $11 billion takeover of his company Autonomy Corp, according to the Associated Press , earlier this summer. The boat trip appeared to be a kind of acquittal celebration, as Morvillo was one of his U.S. lawyers and Bloomer testified in his defense. 

In total, a crew of 10 people and 12 passengers had been aboard Lynch’s yacht when it was struck by a sudden storm, including a type of waterborne tornado called a waterspout which ultimately sunk the vessel. It is believed that the bodies of the remaining missing are in the ship’s hull, which is currently more than 150 feet underwater.

Among those onboard, 15 were rescued by a nearby boat before coast guard vessels brought them to shore. According to NBC News, eight of the rescued were moved to a hospital while the remaining seven were brought to a hotel.

On August 20, NBC News reported rescue teams and divers had been searching the area for the remaining passengers after a previously unsuccessful attempt the day before.

Italy’s national fire department confirmed, per the outlet, that its divers had been able to get inside the wreckage in the initial attempt, however obstructions and narrow access gates made navigating the vessel challenging.

Divers worked in 12-minute shifts underwater due to the depth of the wreckage, while surface searches consisted of a helicopter and a fire brigade boat, the department added.

Meanwhile, one of the surviving passengers Charlotte Golunski has recounted her terrifying experience , explaining that she and her partner James Emsley as well as her 12-month-old daughter Sophie survived because they were on the yacht’s deck as it started to sink.

The group of three were thrown from the deck, she told local outlet La Repubblica , per the BBC , where she then held her baby "afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning.”

“It was all dark,” Golunski recounted. “In the water I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I screamed for help but all I could hear around me was the screams of others.”

(NBC News and E! News are both part of NBCUniversal.)

Yacht that sank off Sicily was carrying people celebrating tech magnate's acquittal; 6 missing

Police divers resumed searching Tuesday for six people believed trapped in the hull of a superyacht that sank in deep seas off Sicily, including a British tech magnate who was celebrating his recent acquittal on fraud charges with the people who had defended him at trial.

The resting place of their sailboat is some 50 meters (164 feet) underwater off Porticello — a depth that required special precautions that complicated the work: Recovery crews said they were working in 12-minute shifts, a measure that slowed down their efforts to reach the cramped inside of the wreck.

The Bayesian, a 184-foot British-flagged yacht, was moored about a half-mile offshore when a storm rolled in before 4 a.m. Monday. Civil protection officials said they believed the ship was struck by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout, and sank quickly.

Grainy film from closed-circuit cameras from shore, broadcast on the website of the Giornale di Sicilia, showed the majestic, illuminated 246-foot mast of the Bayesian weathering the storm and then disappearing over the course of a minute.

Fifteen of the 22 people aboard survived, including a mother who reported holding her 1-year-old baby over the waves to save her. One body has been recovered, identified by officials as the Antiguan-born on-board chef. The rest of the 10-person crew survived, including the captain whom prosecutors reportedly sought to interview.

“It's a great, great tragedy,” said Britain's ambassador to Italy, Edward Llewellyn, who visited Porticello on Tuesday. Britain sent four investigators to the scene, given the disaster involved a British-flagged ship and British citizens were among the missing.

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Fire rescue officials have said the six other passengers will be considered missing until they are located in the wreckage. They include the tycoon Mike Lynch, who was once hailed as Britain’s king of technology and was cleared in June of fraud and conspiracy charges in a U.S. federal trial related to Hewlett Packard’s $11 billion takeover of his company, Autonomy Corp.

Also unaccounted for are Christopher Morvillo, one of Lynch’s lawyers, and Jonathan Bloomer, a chairman at Morgan Stanley International and the former head of the Autonomy audit committee who testified in Lynch’s defense.

Karsten Borner, the captain of the Sir Robert Baden Powell, which rescued the 15 survivors who managed to get into a lifeboat, said he was close enough to be able to see the Bayesian as the storm came in.

“A moment later, she was gone,” he said. “They said they went flat on the water and were sunk in two minutes," Borner added, quoting the survivors.

The rotating search teams, each made up of two specialized cave divers, worked Tuesday to open up access points to get inside the wreck, which lies at a depth far beyond what most recreational divers are certified to reach. They were using a remote-controlled underwater vehicle, or ROV, to help in the search.

The divers have not yet been able to access the below-deck cabins because they were blocked by furniture that had shifted during the violent storm. Rescue crews said they assume the missing six are in those cabins because the storm struck when most would be sleeping, but the teams haven't verified their presence there through portholes.

Luca Cari, a spokesman for the rescue teams, said the search was proceeding much more slowly than another big shipwreck in Italy, the 2012 Costa Concordia cruise ship that flipped on its side off Tuscany's coast, because of the depth of the wreck and the limited space divers have to maneuver.

“That was much simpler. Here everything is more tight," he said.

The outing was intended at least in part as a celebration of Lynch's acquittal and a “looking forward to what was coming next,” said Reid Weingarten, a Washington attorney and a member of Lynch’s defense team who was not on the yacht.

“A lot of people went, a lot of people were planning to go and then of course this happened,” Weingarten said.

Some of the people who stood by Lynch throughout the ordeal were on board, including Morvillo, the lawyer, who Weingarten worked with and said “was like a brother.”

Morvillo's wife, Neda, is also missing, according to his law firm Clifford Chance.

Aki Hussain, CEO of international insurer Hiscox Group, where Bloomer, the witness, was chairman, said the company was "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,” he added.

Charlotte Golunski, who survived the disaster, said she momentarily lost hold of her 1-year-old daughter Sofia in the water, but then managed to hold her up over the waves until a lifeboat inflated and they were both pulled to safety, Italian news agency ANSA reported.

The father, identified by ANSA as James Emslie, also survived, as did Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares. Hannah Lynch, reportedly the couple’s 18-year-old daughter, is among the missing.

The yacht’s registered owner is listed as Revtom Ltd., according to online maritime database Equasis. Bacares is listed as Revtom’s sole owner, according to corporate registration documents from the Isle of Man.

Its name, Bayesian, may be a reference to “Bayesian Inference,” one of the two main approaches to statistical machine learning and the one that was used by Lynch’s company.

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The yacht, built in 2008 by the Italian firm Perini Navi, was carrying 12 passengers and 10 crew. According to online charter companies, it had been available for charter for about $215,000 a week and was notable for its massive 246-foot-tall aluminum mast, one of the tallest in the world.

The coast guard said to date there was no trace of fuel leaks from the wreckage.

In an unrelated event, Lynch's co-defendant in the Autonomy trial who was also cleared, Stephen Chamberlain, was killed Sunday when he was hit by a car while running in Cambridgeshire, England, said Chamberlain's lawyer, Gary Lincenberg.

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6 Passengers, Including 2 Americans, Missing After 180-Foot Yacht Sinks amid Storm in Sicily

Search operations are underway for six missing passengers after a yacht sank in Sicily on Monday, Aug. 19, while one man had been found dead

Two Americans are reportedly among the passengers missing after a yacht sank in a storm off the coast of Sicily.

The search for six people continues after a 56-meter (183-ft) yacht carrying 22 sank in the island's Palermo area in the early morning of Monday, Aug. 19, according to reports. 

The Italian coastguard said in a statement, per The Guardian , “This morning at about 5 a.m. following a violent storm, a 56-meter yacht called Bayesian flying the British flag sank near Porticello.” 

Eyewitnesses reported that the yacht was anchored when it was struck by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout, and lost its balance, causing it to sink, per Sicilian news agency Ansa .

The body of a man, who has been identified as a cook on the boat from Canada, was recovered near the vessel on Monday morning, local outlet Palermo Today reported. 

Two of the missing were later identified by authorities as tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his daughter Hannah , who is believed to be 18.

Corpo Nazionale dei Vigili dei del Fuoco via Getty Images

Two Americans and four British travelers are still among the missing as fire and water rescue teams search to try and locate them, per Ansa, and local news outlet Corriere Della Sera . 

Coastguard patrol boats and firefighters rescued 15 people as divers reached 49 ft below the sea surface to the vessel, according to the outlets. 

One of those rescued was a 1-year-old English girl named Sophie . She was sent to the Children's Hospital of Palermo, where she was reunited with her mother, who received minor injuries in the incident, per Ansa, The Independent and Corriere Della Sera .

Italian Coast Guard via AP

The pair remain in “good condition,” the head of the emergency room of the pediatric hospital, Domenico Cipolla, confirmed to latter outlet. 

The father was sent to the Civic Hospital in Palermo, and five others rescued were transported to an emergency point at another hospital, Ansa reported. 

Footage posted by Italy's fire-and-rescue service, Vigili del Fuoco, shows rescue teams on Friday morning sailing out to sea in their continued search for passengers, with divers entering the water and helicopters flying overhead in an attempt for more findings of the wreckage.

According to the tracking website Vesselfinder , the 16-year-old yacht departed a port in Milazzo in Sicily on Wednesday, Aug. 14, and was listed as “at anchor” on Sunday. The ship is managed by Camper and Nicholsons International, per the BBC .

Said fisherman Pietro Asciutto, who witnessed the sinking from his home, per Ansa, "I was at home when the tornado hit. I immediately closed all the windows."

Never miss a story — sign up for  PEOPLE's free daily newsletter  to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human-interest stories.

"Then I saw the boat, it had only one mast, it was very large. I saw it sink suddenly ... The boat was still floating, then suddenly it disappeared," he added.

The rescue teams theorize the missing people to possibly be trapped inside the hull, making the search for any passengers all the more urgent, Palermo Today reported.

PEOPLE has reached out to the Italian coastguard for further comment.

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The body of UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch was recovered Thursday from his sunken yacht off Sicily, as the search continued for the last of the six people missing -- his teenage daughter.

Specialist divers were still looking for a missing woman, a coastguard official told AFP, with a source close to the investigation having earlier indicated Lynch's 18-year-old daughter Hannah had yet to be found. 

On Wednesday they pulled up four bodies from the wreck of the "Bayesian", while another was brought onland in Porticello, on the north shore of the Italian island near Palermo, Thursday morning. 

The latest grim discovery brings the death toll to six, after the body of a man believed to be the yacht's chef was found shortly after the ship went down in a storm before dawn on Monday. 

The 56-metre (185 feet) British-flagged sailing boat had been anchored some 700 metres off Porticello when it was struck by a waterspout -- akin to a mini-tornado.

It sank within minutes. 

Fifteen people were rescued, including Lynch's wife, but the businessman and his daughter were among six people reported missing.

- 'Unimaginable grief' -

The passengers were guests of 59-year-old Lynch -- a celebrated technology entrepreneur and investor sometimes referred to as the UK's answer to Bill Gates -- celebrating his recent acquittal in a massive US fraud case. 

Lynch's lawyer Christopher Morvillo and his wife Neda, and Jonathan Bloomer, the chair of Morgan Stanley International, and his wife Judy, were also among the missing.

"This is an unimaginable grief to shoulder," the Bloomer family said in a statement Thursday.

Jonathan and Judy "were incredible people and an inspiration to many, but first and foremost they were focused on and loved their family and spending time with their new grandchildren", it said.

"Together for five decades, our only comfort is that they are still together now."

Emergency workers brought a hyperbaric chamber to the quayside Thursday, and could be seen performing a test run.

The chambers are used to treat or prevent decompression sickness in divers, commonly known as the bends.

"I would think the hyperbaric chamber has been brought in as a precaution" as the divers searching the yacht are descending to a great depth, Matthew Schanck from the Maritime Search and Rescue Council, told AFP.

- 'Errors' -

Many questions remain about why the yacht sank, and on Thursday the head of the company which built the boat said the tragedy could have been avoided.

"Everything that was done reveals a very long summation of errors," said Giovanni Costantino, head of the Italian Sea Group, which includes the Perini Navi company that built "Bayesian" in 2008. 

He told Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper that bad weather was forecast and all the passengers should have been gathered at a pre-arranged assembly point, with all the doors and hatches closed. 

Security camera footage of the ship from the shore showed the lights on its mast going out, which Costantino said indicated a short circuit, meaning that the ship had already taken on water. 

"A Perini ship resisted Hurricane Katrina, a category 5 (hurricane). Does it seem to you that it can't resist a tornado from here?" he told the newspaper.

- 'Trapped like mice' -

Costantino said it was "good practice when the ship is at anchor to have a guard on the bridge, and if there was one he could not have failed to see the storm coming".

"Instead it took on water with the guests still in the cabin. They ended up in a trap, those poor people ended up like mice in a trap," he said.

The "Bayesian"  boasted a 75-metre mast, the tallest aluminium sailing mast in the world, according to the Charter World website.

It was reportedly owned by Lynch's family.

Lynch was acquitted on all charges in a San Francisco court in June after he was accused of an $11 billion fraud linked to the sale of his software firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard.

A co-defendant, former Autonomy executive Stephen Chamberlain, died after being hit by a car on Saturday in England.

Italian authorities have opened a probe into the sinking, while the UK's marine accident investigation branch sent four inspectors to Palermo.

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British tech entrepreneur Lynch’s body recovered after yacht tragedy, daughter still missing

The Bayesian, a 56-meter (184-foot) British-flagged yacht, went down in a storm early Monday as it was moored about a kilometer (a half-mile) offshore. Civil protection officials said they believed the ship was struck by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout. read more

The body of British tech magnate Mike Lynch was retrieved on Thursday from the wreck of his family yacht that sank earlier this week off the coast of Sicily during a violent storm, a senior Italian official said.

Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah is still unaccounted for, interior ministry official Massimo Mariani told Reuters after being briefed by the emergency services. The bodies of four other people who vanished when the boat went down were recovered from the yacht on Wednesday.

Rescue crews brought four body bags ashore at Porticello. Salvatore Cocina, head of the Sicily civil protection agency, said a fifth body had been located. Divers on-scene said they would try to recover it on Thursday while continuing the search for the sixth.

The discovery made clear the operation to search the hull on the seabed 50 meters (164 feet) underwater had quickly turned into a recovery one, not a rescue, given the amount of time that had passed and with no signs of life over three days of searching.

The British-flagged Bayesian, a 56-metre-long (184-ft) superyacht carrying 22 passengers and crew, was anchored off the port of Porticello, near Palermo, when it disappeared beneath the waves in a matter of minutes after the bad weather struck in the early hours of Monday.

Lynch, 59, was one of the UK’s best-known tech entrepreneurs and had invited friends to join him on the yacht to celebrate his acquittal in June in a major U.S. fraud trial. His body was brought ashore in a blue body bag and driven in an ambulance to a nearby hospital morgue.

Besides Lynch and his daughter, the other people who failed to make it to safety were Judy and Jonathan Bloomer, a non-executive chair of Morgan Stanley International; Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda Morvillo; and the onboard chef, Canadian-Antiguan national Recaldo Thomas.

Thomas’ body was found near the wreck on Monday. Fifteen people, including Lynch’s wife, survived the disaster. Mariani said it was possible that Hannah Lynch’s body was not in the boat, but might have been swept out to sea.

The families of those missing have not yet commented. Fire brigade spokesman Luca Cari warned it could take time, even days, before the last missing person was found, given the difficulty divers were having in accessing all areas of the boat, which is lying on its side at a depth of 50 metres (165 feet).

A judicial investigation has been opened into the disaster, which has baffled naval marine experts, who say a boat like the Bayesian, built by Italian high-end yacht manufacturer Perini, should have been able to withstand the storm.

Giovanni Costantino, CEO of the Italian Sea Group  which owns Perini, told Italian media the Bayesian was “one of the safest boats in the world” and blamed the crew for failing to follow correct safety procedures.

The captain, James Cutfield, and his eight surviving crew members, have made no public comment on the disaster.

CHALLENGING CONDITIONS

Specialist rescuers have been searching inside the hull of the sunken yacht for the past three days in what they said were extremely challenging conditions due to the depth and the narrowness of the places that the divers are scouring.

The fire brigade compared the efforts to those that were carried out, on a larger scale, for the Costa Concordia, a luxury cruise liner that capsized off the Italian island of Giglio in January 2012, killing 32 people.

Once the final body is recovered, experts will have to decide whether, or how, to salvage the vessel. The CEO of Italian Sea Group said the yacht’s automatic tracking system suggested that it took 16 minutes from the moment the storm first hit to the sinking.

He said it was clear the ship took in large amounts of water, adding that investigators would need to see what doorways or hatches might have been left open, focusing notably on a main door located on the left side of the yacht.

“A Perini boat survived the Category 5 Katrina hurricane. Do you think one couldn’t survive a waterspout here,” he told Corriere della Sera newspaper, referring to a type of tornado which is believed to have hit the Bayesian.

Under maritime law, a captain has full responsibility for the ship and the crew, as well as the safety of all those aboard. The captain of the Costa Concordia is serving a 16-year prison term for his role in the 2012 disaster after he admitted to sailing too close to underwater rocks.

Fifth Body Recovered from Yacht in Sicily as 1 Person Remains Missing in Wreck, Sources Say

The discovery comes after news that four bodies had been recovered from the wreckage of the sunken yacht

A fifth body has been recovered from the luxury yacht that sank off the coast of Sicily , a source close to the rescue operations confirms to PEOPLE.

The discovery comes shortly after four bodies were recovered earlier on Wednesday, Aug, 21. The identities of the bodies that have been recovered were not immediately clear.

A source close to the investigation also confirms to PEOPLE that there is still one person missing and officials continue searching for that individual.

The  Bayesian , a 183-foot vessel, sank around 5 a.m. local time on Monday, Aug. 19, after a storm while moored about a half mile from the coast of Porticello, the Italian coast guard said in a statement that was previously obtained by PEOPLE.

After the sinking, Six passengers had remained missing.

The missing have been identified as  Mike Lynch , a British tech entrepreneur, and  his daughter Hannah , as well as Chairman of Morgan Stanley International  Jonathan Bloomer, his wife, Judy , and New York City-based lawyer  Christopher Morvillo  and his wife, Neda.

Related: Survivor of Yacht That Sank Off Sicily's Coast Recalls How She Used 'All My Strength' to Save Her 1-Year-Old

At the time the yacht sank there were 22 people on board, including 12 passengers and 10 crew.

In the immediate aftermath, 15 people were rescued, according to the coast guard, while a body was retrieved near the vessel and  later identified in news reports as the chef, Ricardo Thomas.

Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, is another one of the individuals who was rescued, according to a local source.

A source close to the survivors previously told PEOPLE that the passengers were celebrating after Lynch was acquitted in June in a financial fraud trial in the U.S.

“That's why he took his closest friends and colleagues on the trip,” the source said.

Related: 'We Are in Shock,' Prominent N.Y.C. Attorney's Firm Says After He and His Wife Go Missing in Yacht Sinking

Morvillo  had represented Lynch in the fraud case and other firm employees were on the  Bayesian as well, a spokesperson for Clifford Chance, his law firm, said in a statement.

Lynch later told Britain’s Sunday Times in a July 27 story that he would’ve died while serving his prison sentence due to his age and lung infection had he been convicted.

“I have various medical things that would have made it difficult to survive,” Lynch, a father of two children — Hannah, 18, and another daughter, 21 — told the paper. 

Related: 6 Passengers, Including 2 Americans, Missing After 180-Foot Yacht Sinks amid Storm in Sicily

After reports of the tech entrepreneur’s disappearance, Danny Fortson, who interviewed Lynch for the Sunday Times story, said he was "reeling."

Fortson told PEOPLE that Lynch seemed "incredibly grateful and happy," though the businessman was still "struggling to accept" his new reality .

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

“He was just really struggling to grapple with that,” the journalist said. “He was hugely excited and very thankful, but also just this case had been going on, or the allegations had been going on for more than a decade.”

A source close to the investigators dealing with the incident previously told PEOPLE that authorities are focusing on the victims before looking into what happened.

"Obviously the priority is being able to work out what has happened to those that are missing and recover any bodies," the source said. "At the moment, no one has been placed under investigation because until they find the bodies, they cannot evaluate any sort of accusation or charge."

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Read the original article on People .

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All about the $40m bayesian yacht that capsized, leaving 6 dead and 1 still missing.

The massive superyacht Bayesian that sank off the coast of Italy on Monday won numerous awards for its sleek interior design — and was sold to its original owner for nearly $40 million.

The luxury sailing ship was carrying 22 people when it capsized and sank during a fierce storm early Monday.

The bodies of five of six missing passengers, including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch , 69, have been recovered. His daughter, 18-year-old Hannah, is the only one of six known killed in the tragedy yet to be found, a source close to the rescue operation told Reuters.

The ship’s chef, Recaldo Thomas, has also been confirmed dead.

Divers continued searching the wreckage of the 184-foot-long, British-flagged vessel, previously called Salute, on Wednesday after discovering four of the bodies.

When it was built in 2008, the Bayesian had the tallest aluminum mast in the world, standing at 237 feet, earning it the award for best exterior styling at the World Superyacht Awards in 2009, the Telegraph reported.

The sprawling superyacht’s interior, decorated with sleek, minimalist furnishings created by Remi Tessier, has also won numerous awards.

The ship, which accommodated 12 guests, had a master bedroom and three double and two twin bedrooms.

It also featured beige sofas, dark wood furnishings, and a teak deck equipped with a large canvas awning to keep guests cool, according to the outlet.

Some of the ship’s styling, including thin brown pillars and miniature terra cotta sculptures, was inspired by Japanese culture.

What to know after a tornado sank the yacht Bayesian off the coast of Sicily:

• A superyacht capsized off the coast of Sicily after a tornado hit the area early Monday, killing six passengers and leaving one missing.
• British tech tycoon Mike Lynch was identified as one of the bodies pulled from the wreckage. His teenage daughter, Hannah, is still missing.
• Lynch — known as “Britain’s Bill Gates” — had invited guests from Clifford Chance, a legal firm that represented him, and Invoke Capital, his own company, on the voyage,  according to the Telegraph . 
• Security camera footage shot from 650 feet from where the  Bayesian sank Monday  shows it disappearing.
• A rare and unexpected “black swan” weather event may have led to the  Bayesian’s speedy demise , maritime experts say.

The extravagant ship won best interior at the International Superyacht Society Awards in 2008 and was also voted one of the best large sailing yachts at the 2009 World Superyacht Awards, according to the outlet.

The yacht’s original owner, John Groenewoud, a Dutch real estate developer, reportedly bought the ship for £30 million ($39 million) when it was built. In 2014, he sold the ship with an asking price of £27 million ($35 million).

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The Bayesian is currently owned by Revtom, a company that listed Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, as its legal owner.

It was named after the Bayesian statistical model that helps financial investors calculate risk — the subject of Lynch’s PhD that later helped him build his empire.

The vessel, operated by yachting company Camper & Nicholsons, had twin 965hp MTU engines, which gave it a range of 3,600 nautical miles at 13 to 15 knots (14 to 17 mph).

RSB Rigging carried out rig service works on the ship with Astilleros de Mallorca, a shipyard facility in Palma, in November 2016.

The Bayesian returned in September 2020 for scheduled service works, including having its mast removed and reinstalled.

Steve Branagh, managing director of RSB Rigging, told the Telegraph: “At this time, our deepest sympathies go out to the friends and families of all those affected by this dreadful tragedy.”

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Tech billionaire Mike Lynch identified among bodies recovered from Italy superyacht catastrophe

The two missing americans include a new york city attorney and his wife.

Moment luxury yacht sinks off coast of Italy caught on camera, with 6 presumed dead

Grainy CCTV footage shows the moment a storm struck the Bayesian luxury yacht, which sank Aug. 19, 2024, off the coast of Italy. Six people are missing, officials say. (Giornale di Sicilia)

The Italian coast guard on Thursday confirmed that billionaire tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch's body was among the four recovered from the water yesterday after his superyacht sank off the Italian coast on Monday.

The 184-foot British-flagged Bayesian carrying English entrepreneurs, lawyers and tourists capsized and sank off Sicily in bad weather early Monday, when divers rescued 15 people.

The identities of the other three bodies recovered Wednesday have not been disclosed, and one person is still missing Divers also recovered the body of chef Recaldo Thomas on Monday.

Among the rescued was Ayla Ronald, senior associate at Clifford Chance, a global law firm that recently handed a win to Lynch, who was acquitted of fraud accusations in San Francisco in June, according to The Telegraph.

Italian firefighter scuba divers bring ashore, in the green bag, the body of one of the victims from the British-flagged vessel Bayesian, Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024. The yacht was hit by a violent sudden storm and sank early Monday, while at anchor off the Sicilian village of Porticello near Palermo, in southern Italy. (Salvatore Cavalli)

Ronald's father, Lin Ronald, told the outlet that he texted his daughter after the superyacht sank. 

MOMENT LUXURY YACHT SINKS OFF COAST OF ITALY CAUGHT ON CAMERA, WITH 6 PRESUMED DEAD

Emergency services carry a body bag after a sailboat sank in the early hours of Monday, off the coast of Porticello, near the Sicilian city of Palermo, Italy, August 19, 2024. (REUTERS/Igor Petyx)

"[S]he hasn’t given me any updates about missing personnel or saved personnel. She has only said to me that there are deaths, and she and her partner are alive," Lin Ronald told The Telegraph, adding that his daughter "is a lawyer who is part of the legal team that was invited to go sailing as a result of the success in the recent United States court case."

Among the rescued was Ayla Ronald, senior associate at Clifford Chance, a global law firm that recently handed a win to billionaire tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, who was acquitted of fraud accusations in San Francisco in June, according to The Telegraph. (Clifford Chance)

Two Americans and four British nationals remain among the missing or unidentified. The two Americans are Christopher Morvillo, a New York City partner at Clifford Chance who helped with Lynch's fraud case, and his wife, Neda Morvillo, a jewelry designer.

"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, and with their families," a Clifford Chance spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "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 honored during this period."

MORGAN STANLEY INTERNATIONAL CHAIRMAN, WIFE AND 4 OTHERS STILL MISSING AFTER LUXURY YACHT SINKS OFF SICILY

Neda Morvillo and Chris Morvillo attend Summer Birthday Cocktails For Lawrence Kaplan at Tower 270 - Rooftop on June 21, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)

Morvillo, who owns residences in New York City and South Kent, celebrated Lynch's June 6 acquittal on LinkedIn in one of his final social media posts before the luxury boat accident, eerily writing that his family would live "happily ever after." 

"A huge thank you to my patient and incredible wife, Neda Morvillo, and my two strong, brilliant and beautiful daughters, Sabrino Morvillo and Sophia Morvillo," he wrote after thanking the legal team that helped in Lynch's legal success.

WHO IS MIKE LYNCH, THE BRITISH TECH ENTREPRENEUR MISSING AFTER YACHT SANK?

Emergency and rescue services work near the scene where a sailboat sank in the early hours of Monday off the coast of Porticello, near the Sicilian city of Palermo, Italy, August 19, 2024. (REUTERS/Igor Petyx)

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The boat sank sometime around 5 a.m. Monday near the port of Porticello, where it was anchored, according to the Italian coast guard. There were a total of 10 crew members and 12 passengers aboard the ship at the time.

"The wind was very strong. Bad weather was expected , but not of this magnitude," a coast guard official in Palermo told Reuters.

Fox News' Pilar Arias, Christina Coulter and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Audrey Conklin is a digital reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business. Email tips to [email protected] or on Twitter at @audpants.

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New Milford Your Local News for New Milford, Connecticut

Attorney With Litchfield County Roots, Wife Missing After Yacht Capsizes In Italy: Reports

A New York attorney with Connecticut roots and his wife are among seven people missing after the yacht they were on capsized early this week in Italy, according to multiple reports.

Christopher Morvillo 

Christopher Morvillo, age 59, who attended the Canterbury School in Litchfield County, Connecticut, and later Fordham University, along with his wife, Neda Morvillo, age 57, are among six people who are unaccounted after the 184-foot luxury yacht overturned off the coast of Sicily on Monday morning, Aug. 19, according to ABC 7.

Twenty-two people were on board the ship at the time of the incident near Palermo, according to the report.

The couple's bodies may still be on the boat, which rescuers have had a difficult time reaching, ABC 7 reports.

According to the Financial Times , the yacht is owned by a client of Morvillo's, British tycoon Mike Lynch.

Morvillo served as an assistant US Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1999 to 2005, having helped in the criminal investigation stemming from the 9/11 attacks, according to his bio on his firm's website.

Two months ago, Morvillo wrote a post on LinkedIn following an exoneration in a client. After congratulating multiple colleagues and team members, Morvillo thanks his family.

"And, finally, a huge thank you to my patient and incredible wife, Neda Morvillo, and my two strong, brilliant, and beautiful daughters, Sabrina Morvillo and Sophia Morvillo. None of this would have been possible without your love and support. I am so glad to be home," said Morvillo, closing on an eerie note.

"And they all lived happily ever after…."

Click here to follow Daily Voice New Milford and receive free news updates.

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Six people missing after sailing yacht sinks in Sicily

One person is dead and six people remain missing off the coast of Sicily after a sudden powerful storm brought down a 180-foot sailing yacht.

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Body of british tech magnate mike lynch recovered, 1 still missing after luxury superyacht sank in freak storm off sicily. here's what we know about the incident..

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Mike Lynch, the U.K. investor and founder of IT company Autonomy, has been identified as one of two bodies recovered from the Bayesian, the yacht that sunk off the coast of Sicily early Monday, according to several reports coming out of the country that cite the chief of Civil Protection, Salvo Cocina. The boat, registered to Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, quickly capsized in the early hours of Monday after it was struck by a tornado-like water column. In a tragic coincidence, Chamberlain was hit by a car last Saturday and died of his wounds earlier this week.

Mike Lynch, recently acquitted in HP-Autonomy fraud case, is missing after yacht capsized off Sicily (updated)

Mike Lynch, the investor and high-profile founder of U.K. tech firm Autonomy, has been declared missing at sea after the yacht he was on, the Bayesian, capsized in a storm off the coast of Sicily early Monday morning. Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, is one of the 15 who have been rescued. The news is a dramatic, tragic development for one of the more colorful, and sometimes controversial, figures in technology out of the U.K.

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Bayesian yacht search called off overnight as five bodies found - but one remains missing at sea

A search of the Bayesian superyacht has been called off just hours after the bodies of tech mogul Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah were found inside

• 22:32, 21 Aug 2024

The search of the Bayesian superyacht wreckage has been called off overnight after five bodies were found, with two confirmed as tech mogul Mike Lynch and his daughter Hannah.

Salvatore Cocina, head of Sicily’s civil protection agency, told the PA news agency that searches have finished for the day and will resume on Thursday. He confirmed that five bodies have been found, but only four recovered. One person remains missing, Mr Cocina said.

Search teams made the tragic discovery of Mike Lynch and 18-year-old Hannah on Wednesday after finally breaking in to the cabin of the Bayesian, which sank off the coast of Sicily after being hit by a freak tornado on Monday morning.

The Chief of Civil Protection later said the two bodies were that of the father and daughter, before announcing two more corpses had been recovered. The freak incident came as the 59-year-old Brit was enjoying a victory trip to celebrate winning a US fraud trial.

And Hannah had just landed a place to study English at Oxford. Two bodies were brought ashore shortly before 4pm local time yesterday and were later confirmed as the pair. Three further body bags were transported from the wreck site and taken away under blue lights but their identities remain unknown.

It means one yacht guest remains missing. Still unaccounted for are Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy and American citizens Chris Morvillo and his jewellery designer wife Neda. The four guests, plus the tycoon and teen daughter, had been missing since Monday, with specialist divers scrambling to access the boat in the hope air pockets in the cabins could keep them breathing.

The £30 million Bayesian went down in just 60 seconds after being hit off the coast of Porticello on Monday morning. It was carrying 10 crew members and 12 passengers. Earlier a doctor treating the hero mum who saved her baby in the horror said she was sleeping on deck with the tot when disaster struck.

Charlotte Emsley, 36, survived the sinking of the superyacht by reportedly holding her baby above the waves. It emerged as inspectors from the UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) arrived on scene on Wednesday.

The MAIB is looking into what happened because the yacht Bayesian was flying a British flag. One expert told the Telegraph authorities are investigating whether hatches left open by crew members contributed to the sinking. The wreckage of Bayesian is resting on the seabed 50 metres deep.

Fire crews said they accessed the vessel through natural entrances, without making openings. And the Italian coastguard said remotely-controlled underwater robots were assisting the search. The devices can remain underwater for at least two hours at a time, providing much-needed help to diving teams who can only search the wreck in 12-minute intervals.

Of the 22 passengers and crew on board, 15 – including Mr Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares – were rescued after escaping onto a lifeboat. Survivors are recuperating at a hotel complex in Porticello, where authorities are gathering witness statements.

Ms Bacares has reportedly been joined by the couple's elder daughter who was not on board the yacht. We earlier revealed the mum-of-two was in a "state of shock and sadness" as she anxiously waited for news. She has reportedly been joined by the couple's elder daughter who was not on board the yacht.

The ship's captain was yesterday confirmed as “well respected” seafarer James Cutfield, 51. The New-Zealander earlier said crew members “didn’t see [the storm] coming.” He is recovering in hospital with his wife by his side.

More of the vessel's rescued crew members were named by the Italian Coastguard on Tuesday, with Leo Eppel and South African nationals Leah Randall and Katja Chicken all confirmed as having been on board. A body recovered at the scene of the sinking on Monday was that of Canadian-Antiguan national Recaldo Thomas, who was working on the superyacht.

Gareth Williams, a friend of the chef, told the BBC : "I can talk for everyone that knew him when I say he was a well-loved, kind human being with a calm spirit." Another pal, Eli Fuller, added Mr Thomas was "friends with everybody,” and was "always positive" and "sought-after" in his profession.

Mr Lynch – once dubbed "Britain’s Bill Gates"– formed his first firm in 1996 with a £2,000 loan, and it morphed into software giant Autonomy. Just months ago, the head honcho - worth around £500 million - was cleared of fraud in the US over the 2011 sale of that firm to Hewlett-Packard.

Earlier Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, west London, where Hannah Lynch was a pupil, said its "thoughts are with their family and everyone involved." In a separate tragedy, Stephen Chamberlain – the former vice president of finance at Autonomy and Mr Lynch's co-defendant – died after being hit by a car while out jogging in Cambridgeshire on Saturday.

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