Search efforts resumed Tuesday for six people who went missing off the coast of Sicily when the luxury superyacht they were travelling in sank in the early hours of the morning Monday.
Divers in wetsuits and oxygen tanks returned to the site off Porticello, near Palermo, to tag-team in 12-minute underwater search shifts where the luxury sailboat, which was carrying 22 people, went down. Fire rescue crews reported that divers only made it to the bridge during a first search, and were unable to access the below-deck cabins because they were blocked by furniture that had shifted during the violent storm that toppled the vessel.
Fifteen people aboard the boat, named the Bayesian, were rescued, including a mother who reported swimming to safety while holding her one-year-old baby above the waves.
Ten crew members and 12 tourists were onboard when the boat sank.
One body has been recovered from the scene, The Associated Press reports, and the Italian coast guard confirmed to NBC News that it was the ship’s chef who died. Global Affairs Canada told Global News that it is aware of reports that a Canadian citizen had died, but did not confirm the news and said that due to privacy considerations no further information would be disclosed.
Global News also reached out to the Embassy of Canada in Rome and the Embassy of Italy in Ottawa for more information about the incident and the missing Canadian, but has not received confirmation as of press time.
However, the six missing passengers have been revealed.
Mike Lynch and his daughter, Hannah
Mike Lynch, 59, is one of the U.K.’s best-known tech entrepreneurs and was sailing on the Bayesian with his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah. Reuters reports that Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, owns the Bayesian and was one of the 15 passengers rescued.
Lynch built the country’s largest software firm, Autonomy, and was referred to as “Britain’s Bill Gates.”
He sold the firm to Hewlett-Packard for US$11 billion in 2011, after which the deal spectacularly unravelled, with the U.S. tech giant accusing him of fraud, resulting in a lengthy trial. Lynch was eventually acquitted by a jury in San Francisco in June.
In an extraordinary coincidence, Stephen Chamberlain, Lynch’s co-defendant in the trial, died following a road accident in Britain over the weekend, his lawyer said on Monday.
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The other missing passengers on the superyacht were Lynch’s colleagues and their wives.
Jonathan and Judy Bloomer
Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy are also among the unaccounted for, confirmed Salvatore Cocina, head of the Italian island’s Civil Protection agency.
Bloomer is also the chairman of London-listed insurer Hiscox, whose CEO said in a statement Tuesday that the company was “deeply shocked and saddened” by the “tragic news.”
“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,” Aki Hussain wrote.
Reuters reports that Bloomer appeared as a character witness on Lynch’s behalf during his lengthy trial. Lynch appointed Bloomer to Autonomy’s board of directors in 2010, where he served as chairman of the audit committee at the time of the HP deal.
Judy Bloomer was described as “a brilliant champion for women’s health and medical research” by The Eve Appeal, a British cancer charity, in an emailed statement to NBC News.
Chris and Neda Morvillo
Chris Morvillo, an American lawyer at Clifford Chance, and his wife Neda are also missing. Morvillo was involved in successfully defending the case against Lynch.
A spokesperson for the law firm told CNN that employees at Clifford Chance were “in shock and deeply saddened.”
“Our thoughts are with our partner, Christopher Morvillo, and his wife Neda who are among the missing. 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,” the spokesperson added.
A harrowing scene
The Bayesian, a 56-metre British-flagged vessel, had been moored about a half-mile off Ponticello when a storm rolled in around 4 a.m. Monday. Civil protection officials said they believed the ship was struck by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout, which had passed through the area.
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, which is almost three degrees more than normal,” Luca Mercalli, Italian climatologist and president of the country’s meteorological society, told Reuters.
“This creates an enormous source of energy that contributes to these storms.”
Among the survivors was Charlotte Golunski, who said she momentarily lost hold of her one-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 local outlet ANSA as James, also survived.
“I immediately hugged her again amid the fury of the waves. I held her tight, close to me, while the sea was stormy,” she said. “Many were screaming. Luckily, the lifeboat inflated, and 11 of us managed to get on it.”
The doctor treating the survivors told the BBC that his patients said the ship “capsized within a few minutes.”
“They told me they found themselves in an incredible condition, let’s say of physical and psychological upheaval of their lives, and that the boat capsized within a few minutes,” Dr. Domenico Cipolla said.
Karsten Borner, the captain of a nearby ship that helped rescue the survivors, told reporters that there was a “strong hurricane gust, and we had to start the engine to keep the ship in an angled position,” according to Reuters.
He added that they had “watched the ship behind us not to touch them and we managed to keep the ship in position.” After the storm was over, he said, “we noticed that the ship behind us was gone.”
“Fifteen people inside. Four people were injured, three heavily injured, and we brought them to our ship,” he said. “Then we communicated with the coast guard, and after some time, the coast guard came and later picked up injured people.”
The search effort
Because the Bayesian is resting at a depth of 50 metres underwater, divers can only stay in 12-minute shifts.
The rotating search teams, each made up of two specialized cave divers, were working Tuesday to open up other access points to get inside the wreckage. Rescue crews said they assume the six passengers will be found in the below-deck cabins, given the time of the shipwreck, but that they have not managed to verify their presence there through portholes.
The statement referred to the six as “missing.” Fire rescue officials have said the six will be considered missing until they are located in the wreckage.
— With files from Reuters and The Associated Press
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