ROME (AP) — On Friday, Italian rescue teams successfully recovered the last of seven bodies from a superyacht that sank off the coast of Sicily, according to the Coast Guard. Among the deceased is believed to be the daughter of British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, who also lost his life in the accident.
The final missing person, 18-year-old Hannah Lynch, was the last unaccounted individual on The Bayesian, a 56-meter (184-foot) British-flagged yacht that went down during a storm earlier this week.
Mike Lynch’s body was retrieved on Thursday. He had been celebrating his recent legal victory in a fraud case with family and supporters in the United States. His wife, Angela Bacares, is among the 15 survivors of the tragedy.
In a statement released Friday, a family spokesperson expressed, “The Lynch family is devastated and in shock. They are receiving comfort and support from relatives and friends. Their thoughts are with all those affected by this tragedy.”
Rescue efforts spanned four days, with teams facing difficulties as they searched through the wreckage, which rests 50 meters (164 feet) deep on the seabed. Civil protection officials suspect that the yacht may have been hit by a waterspout—a tornado over water—causing it to sink rapidly.
Italian firefighter divers bring ashore in a plastic bag the body of one of the victims of a shipwreck, in Porticello, Sicily, southern Italy, Friday, August 23, 2024. Italian rescuers brought ashore the body of the final missing person who was on a superyacht that sank off the coast of Sicily. (Alberto Lo Bianco/LaPresse via AP)
The other five victims include Christopher Morvillo, one of Mike Lynch’s U.S. lawyers, and his wife, Neda; Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley’s London-based investment banking division, and his wife, Judy; as well as Recaldo Thomas, the yacht’s chef.
Investigators from the Termini Imerese Public Prosecutor’s Office are set to hold a news conference on Saturday to share initial findings from their criminal investigation, which began immediately after the tragedy, although no formal suspects have been named yet.
The key question investigators are examining is how a sailing vessel that was marketed as “unsinkable” by its manufacturer, the Italian shipyard Perini Navi, could sink while a nearby sailboat remained mostly unharmed.
