As the search continues for six missing passengers on the superyacht Bayesian, which sank off the Sicilian coast, Britain’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has sent four investigators to the scene.
The MAIB will be responsible for leading the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the sinking, given that it was a British-flagged vessel.
The 56 metre-long yacht had 22 people on board – 12 passengers and ten crew – when it sank around 4.30am local time off Palermo on Monday.
The air and sea search for the six missing passengers has focused on the vessel’s hull, lying in 50 metres of water. Trained divers with the Italian firefighting department can only work in 12 minutes shifts at this depth.
The national director of Italy’s firefighting department divers, Giuseppe Petrone, told The Guardian newspaper that his team had located a breach in the sailboat’s hull and were working to open a passage to reach the cabins.
The six people still missing include British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, whose parents were from Cork and Tipperary, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, his lawyer Chris Morvillo who represented him during a recent trial and his wife Neda Morvillo, along with Morgan Stanley International Bank chair Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy Bloomer.
One of those who died was the yacht’s chef, while nine members of the crew are among 15 who were rescued.
The Guardian quotes a witness account from Fabio Cefalù, 36, a fisher from Porticello, who had arrived to fishing at 3.30am on Monday and was one of the first on scene to assist.
“When we saw the first flashes of lightning, we decided to stop [fishing],”he said.
“At 3.55, a mini tornado arrived. The docks of the port diverted it and it hit the sailboat head-on. They were in the wrong place at the wrong time,”Cefalù said.
He estimated that the “whirlwind” lasted about “ten minutes with strong winds and rain”.
“We saw a flare 500 metres from the dock. We went to see what had happened. We only saw the floating debris of the boat. We immediately called the coastguard,” he said.
“ In my opinion, the missing passengers are still onboard. They were caught in their sleep by the storm and didn’t have time to get out,” Cefalù said.
The Bayesian, built in Italy in 2008 and available for lease at up to 195,000 euro a week, was moored about a kilometre (a half-mile) off Porticello when the storm hit.
It had called at various ports in Sicily in previous days. Investigations will focus on what happened to break its mast, how it took in water so quickly, and if its retracting keel was down when the storm came in.
Karsten Borner, 69, the captain of the vessel that was alongside, had started his engines to give his hull more stability in the weather system.
“After securing our boat, we immediately approached the Bayesian. But it had already sunk. I have never seen a vessel of this size go down so quickly. Within a few minutes, there was nothing left. Then we saw the raft with the 15 passengers. It was a tragedy,” he said.
Read regular updates in The Guardian here
