British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter are among six tourists missing after his luxury yacht capsized in stormy weather and sank off the coast of Sicily.
The 56-metre Bayesian, which was docked off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo, capsized shortly before 5am when the area was hit by a tornado, with 15 guests rescued from the water.
It has been reported that four of the missing passengers are British and two are American, while one body has been recovered.
Salvatore Cocina, director general of Sicily’s civil protection agency, told the BBC that 18-year-old Hannah Lynch was confirmed to be missing with her father, along with the yacht’s chef, Ricardo Thomas.
At the time it sank, the British-flagged superyacht was carrying 10 crew members and 12 passengers, with Mr Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares among those rescued, local media has reported.
Among those to be saved is Charlotte Golunski and her husband James Emsley, who had been on board with their one-year-old daughter Sofia when the storm began to violently sway the boat.
She said: “It was the end of the world and my husband and I were struggling to stand up.”
As the yacht sank, the family were thrown into the water. “For two seconds, I lost my daughter in the sea, then quickly hugged her amid the fury of the waves.”
“I held her afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning,” she added. ‘It was all dark. In the water, I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I screamed for help but all I could hear around me was the screams of others.”
Ms Golunski, Mr Emsley and Sofia are all being treated in hospital.
An Italian doctor at the paediatric hospital in Palermo who treated the family told local media: “She told me that while they were sleeping, at a certain point the yacht overturned due to the tornado, and they found themselves in the water.
“Some of them immediately managed to get onto the lifeboat. And some, evidently, didn’t make it.”
Karsten Borner, captain of a nearby boat said that his crew took on board some survivors who were on a life raft, including three who were seriously injured.
Fisherman Francesco Cefalu said he sailed from the shore to the scene after seeing a flare at about 4.30am but by the time he arrived, Bayesian had already sunk, with only items such as cushions and wood floating in the water.
He added: “I think they are inside, all the missing people.”
Salvo Cocina of Sicily’s civil protection agency said: “They were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
One anonymous witness told Rai News: “That boat was all lit up. At about 4.30 in the morning, it was gone. A beautiful boat where there had been a party. A normal holiday spent happily at sea turned into a tragedy.
“The boat was not far from the port. It took very little to raise the anchor and head for the port. Evidently, they were surprised by the storm that suddenly hit and they were unable to avoid sinking.”
The vessel is understood to have belonged to Mr Lynch and was registered in a company under his wife’s name. The 59-year-old founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, and was made an OBE for services to enterprise 10 years later.
In June, he was cleared of conducting a massive fraud relating to an $11bn (£8.64bn) sale to US company Hewlett Packard, a deal which netted him £800m but kicked off a 13-year legal battle.
He faced more than 20 years in US prison if convicted of the fraud and conspiracy allegations, and The Times reported that he spent 13 months under house arrest awaiting the trial.
A spokesperson for Mr Lynch said there was no comment.
On Monday, it transpired Mr Lynch’s co-defendant in the case, Stephen Chamberlain, was critically injured in a road accident on Saturday, days before Mr Lynch went missing.
Mr Chamberlain, Autonomy’s former vice-president of finance alongside chief executive Lynch, was hit by a car in Cambridgeshire on Saturday morning and was placed on life support, Reuters reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.
Mr Chamberlain faced the same charges of fraud and conspiracy as his former boss for allegedly scheming to inflate the company’s value before it was sold but was also cleared of all charges.
Cambridgeshire Police appealed for witnesses after a collision between a pedestrian and a car in Newmarket Road in Stretham, Cambridgeshire, saying a man in his fifties had been taken to hospital with serious injuries.
Specialist cave divers are now being flown to Sicily from the Italian mainland to assist, while a helicopter and the fire brigade have been involved in the search.
A spokesman for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said: “We are in contact with the local authorities following an incident in Sicily, and stand ready to provide consular support to British nationals affected.”
Bayesian completed several sailings in recent days, calling at various ports in Sicily, according to the ship-tracking website VesselFinder.
The superyacht can accommodate up to 12 guests in six suites and is listed for rent for up to €195,000 (£166,000) a week.
She was built in 2008 by Italian company Perini Navi and has previously won an award for best exterior styling at the 2009 World Superyacht Awards.
Source Agencies
