Latest body found in Sicily yacht wreck is UK's Lynch: Italian media

PORTICELLO, Italy

Divers of the Vigili del Fuoco, the Italian Corps. of Firefighters arrive in Porticello harbor near Palermo, with a third body at the back of the boat on Aug. 21, 2024, two days after the British-flagged luxury yacht Bayesian sank.

The latest body recovered from the sunken luxury yacht off Sicily has been identified as UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch, who had been missing along with six others, according to Italian media reports on Thursday.

Specialist divers were searching for the last person missing after the superyacht sank in a pre-dawn storm off the Italian island on Monday.

On Wednesday, specialist divers, assisted by an underwater robot, recovered four bodies from the wreck of the "Bayesian," and another body was pulled from the site on Thursday morning, as reported by AFP journalists. Discoveries raised the confirmed death toll to six, following the earlier recovery of a man believed to be the yacht's chef shortly after the vessel capsized in the storm.

The 56-meter (185-foot) British-flagged yacht was anchored approximately 700 meters off Porticello, near Palermo in northern Sicily, when it was suddenly hit by a waterspout, resembling a mini-tornado. The yacht sank rapidly, within minutes of the impact.

Fifteen people were rescued, including Lynch's wife and a woman and her one-year-old baby. However, Lynch, his daughter, his lawyer Christopher Morvillo and his wife Neda, and Jonathan Bloomer, Chair of Morgan Stanley International, along with his wife Judy, were initially reported missing.

In the aftermath, several questions arise regarding the circumstances of the yacht's sinking.

On Thursday, Giovanni Costantino, head of the Italian Sea Group, which encompasses Perini Navi, the company that built "Bayesian," suggested that the tragedy was preventable.

"Everything that was done reveals a very long summation of errors," he stated to Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Costantino explained that bad weather had been forecast, and safety protocols required all passengers to be gathered at an assembly point, with all doors and hatches securely closed. He pointed to security camera footage from shore showing the yacht's mast lights extinguishing, indicating a short circuit and suggesting that the ship had already begun taking 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?" Costantino commented, highlighting the yacht's typically robust build. He underscored that best practices dictate having a guard on the bridge while anchored, to observe incoming storms.

"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," he lamented.