Luxury yacht sinking results in retrieval of two deceased individuals off the coast of Sicily by explorers.
On Wednesday, the hunt for the six vanished individuals continued at the submerged "Bayesian" vessel, positioned at a depth of 50 meters. A team of specialized divers was transported to the disaster site by boat from Porticello, beginning early in the morning, as per AFP journalists' reports. The fire department stated that an underwater drone was also deployed for the operation. Regrettably, the chances of locating the missing individuals alive decreased with each passing hour.
The 56-meter opulent yacht "Bayesian", with ten crew members and twelve passengers onboard, succumbed to a storm near Porticello off Sicily's coast on Monday evening. The incident was triggered by a waterspout, a marine tornado. Seventeen individuals were rescued, but one perished and six were unaccounted for. According to media sources, the deceased was the ship's cook.
The identities of the two retrieved bodies were initially unclear. Among the vanished are renowned tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, widely known as the "British Bill Gates", and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah. A top executive from Morgan Stanley International, Jonathan Bloomer, and his spouse Judy, were also aboard and are now missing, as per the insurer Hiscox.
On Tuesday evening, the fire department announced that divers had penetrated the yacht's interior, but the ordeal was "lengthy and intricate". Vincenzo Zagarola, a coast guard officer, stated on Italian radio that a favorable outcome was "difficult to envision".
However, experts maintained that extravagant yachts such as the "Bayesian" are constructed with watertight air compartments. "Reports of survivors found in such air compartments exist," explained British engineer Jean-Baptiste Souppez in a published contribution from the Science Media Centre. He referred to Nigerian sailor Harrison Okene, who was trapped in a watertight air chamber for close to three days after his ship capsized in 2013 before being rescued. "Whether air pockets have formed in the 'Bayesian' remains uncertain," Souppez concluded.
According to Italian media sources, the guests were the invitation of Lynch. The entrepreneur reportedly reveled in his acquittal in a million-dollar fraud trial on the yacht.
Lynch was declared not guilty of fraud charges in the US in June, in relation to the sale of his software company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard. He was accused of altering records and inflating his company's revenue. As per an estimate by the "Sunday Times", Lynch's net worth stood at approximately 587 million euros.
The storm-struck "Bayesian" yacht experienced significant [Destruction], with interior areas severely damaged during the rescue operation. Despite the youth and expertise of the divers, locating the missing individuals and their potential survival in air pockets became increasingly unlikely, given the passage of time.
