The recovered corpse belongs to businessman Mike Lynch from the submerged yacht.
After the shipwreck of the high-end yacht "Bayesian" off the Italian coast of Sicily, specialists retrieved a fifth corpse from the vessel's interior. The deceased has been identified as British businessman Mike Lynch. His 18-year-old daughter remains unaccounted for.
Following the maritime tragedy, professional divers hauled Lynch's body up from the sunken vessel, which rests at a depth of 50 meters beneath the sea surface. The yacht, "Bayesian," is a luxurious British vessel that now lies on the ocean floor. Besides Lynch, his daughter and fifteen other individuals remain unharmed, while the lives of six others have been lost, including the ship's cook and two married couples.
Early on Wednesday afternoon, some British and Italian news outlets reported that Lynch's body had been found. However, this information later proved to be unconfirmed. Any hope that survivors might have endured in an air pocket had been extinguished by the time of this report.
Theories around the disaster's cause
The passengers and crew seem to have been caught off guard by an impending storm. The precise sequence of events that led to the disaster remains a mystery. The injured captain underwent a lengthy interrogation by Italian police, who quoted him as saying, "We didn't see it coming." However, some cast doubt on this account.
The "Bayesian" is rumored to have sunk in less than 60 seconds, leaving experts baffled. Possible explanations include an open hatch during a massive wave or an improperly adjusted central ballast system, which regulates the ship's draft.
The "Bayesian" boasted a system capable of halving its draft. Under normal sailing conditions, it had a ten-meter draft with an extended central ballast. This feature assisted in counteracting the enormous forces exerted by the skyscraper-like mast. However, reducing the draft to approximately four meters — such as to navigate into harbors — might have ultimately led to the ship's demise.
The 56-meter-long, one-of-a-kind "Bayesian" with its 75-meter-tall aluminum mast belonged to the Lynch family. The fire department confirmed that the sunken ship was lying on its side on the ocean floor, complicating the search further. A remotely operated underwater vehicle was also employed in the recovery mission.
"British Bill Gates" set to celebrate his exoneration
Lynch, often compared to Bill Gates in British tabloids, sold his software firm Autonomy to the US corporation Hewlett-Packard in 2011 for a whopping $11 billion. Unfortunately, this acquisition was one of history's worst tech acquisitions in Silicon Valley.
Lynch and former finance manager Steve Chamberlain, who was recently hit by a car while jogging, were accused of deceiving Hewlett-Packard about Autonomy's financial standing. However, a jury in San Francisco acquitted both of them.
The search for Lynch's daughter, a British citizen, continues among the wreckage of the "Bayesian." The luxurious British yacht, now rests in its watery grave off the Italian coast, a tragic reminder of the incident.
