Porticello, Italy.- Police divers on Tuesday resumed their search for six people trapped in the hull of a superyacht that sank in deep waters off Sicily, including a British technology tycoon celebrating his recent acquittal on fraud charges and his trial defenders.
The luxury ship lies about 50 metres (164 feet) underwater off Porticello, near Palermo, a depth for which most recreational divers are certified and which requires special precautions. Recovery teams were only allowed to stay for 12-minute shifts, a measure that slowed their efforts to reach the narrow interior of the wreck.
The 56-metre (180-foot) British-flagged luxury yacht Bayesian was anchored about a half-mile (1 kilometre) off the coast when a storm hit just before 4 a.m. Monday. Civil protection officials believe the boat was hit by a waterspout or tornado over water that passed through the area and sank quickly.
A grainy CCTV footage from land, posted on the Giornale di Sicilia website, showed the Bayesian’s majestic 75-metre (246-foot) illuminated mast weathering the storm and disappearing within a minute.
Fifteen of the 22 people on board survived, including a mother who held her 1-year-old daughter in the water to save her. One body was recovered, identified by officials as the Antiguan-born chef on board the ship. The rest of the 10-person crew survived, including the captain, whom prosecutors sought for questioning.
“It’s a big, big tragedy,” said Britain’s ambassador to Italy, Edward Llewellyn, who visited Porticello on Tuesday. Britain sent four investigators to the wreck site because the disaster involved a British-flagged vessel and British citizens were among those reported missing.
Fire officials said the other six people on board are considered missing until the wreckage is located. They include billionaire Mike Lynch, once regarded as Britain’s king of technology, who was acquitted in June of fraud and conspiracy charges in a U.S. federal trial related to the $11 billion sale of his company, Autonomy Corp., to Hewlett Packard.
Also missing are Christopher Morvillo, one of Lynch’s lawyers, and John Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International and former chairman of Autonomy’s audit committee, who testified in Lynch’s defense.
Karsten Borner, captain of the Sir Robert Baden Powell, who rescued survivors who managed to board a lifeboat, said he was close enough to see the Bayesian as the storm approached.
“A moment later, it was gone,” he said. “They said they were damaged in the water and sank within two minutes,” Borner added, citing survivors.
Rotating search teams, each made up of two specialized cave divers, were working Tuesday to open access points and penetrate the wreck, which lies at a depth far greater than most recreational divers are certified to reach.
Divers have been unable to reach the cabins below deck because they are blocked by furniture that was moved by the violent storm. Rescuers said they assume the six missing people are in those cabins because the storm struck when most of them should have been sleeping, but crews have not verified their presence through the portholes.
Luca Cari, a spokesman for the rescue teams, said the search was progressing much more slowly than in another major Italian shipwreck, that of the Costa Concordia cruise ship in 2012 which capsized on its side off the coast of Tuscany, because of the depth of the wreck and the limited space available for divers to maneuver.
“It was much simpler back then. Here everything is tighter,” he said.
The excursion was intended, at least in part, to be a celebration of Lynch’s acquittal and a “glimpse of what was to come next,” said Reid Weingarten, a Washington lawyer and member of Lynch’s defense team who was not on the yacht.
“A lot of people went, a lot of people were planning to go, and then, of course, this happened,” Weingarten said.
The yacht, built in 2008 by Italian firm Perini Navi, could accommodate 12 passengers in four double cabins, one triple cabin and one suite, plus crew quarters, according to Charter World and Yacht Charters.
The ship, which was named Salute when sailing under the Dutch flag, had a sleek, minimalist interior of light wood with Japanese-style details by French designer Rémi Tessier, according to descriptions and photos on websites.
The Bayesian was notable for its 75-meter (246-foot) mast, one of the tallest in the world made of aluminum. Its website offered it for rent for up to 195,000 euros (about $215,000) a week.
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