A manslaughter investigation into the seven deaths on a superyacht off the coast of Sicily will look at responsibility of the crew, as passengers scrambled for air in their final moments before sinking.
British tech mogul Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah were among seven people recovered from the waters after the £30million yacht – named the Bayesian – sank in the early hours of Monday morning.
A violent spell of bad weather in Italy caused the vessel to overturn, and whilst 15 survivors managed to escape, seven people could not initially be located, prompting a large-scale search effort.
The body of Ricardo Thomas, the chef onboard, was first discovered within the 50-metre-deep wreck on Monday. In the following days, the bodies of Lynch, Hannah, Christopher Morvillo – one of Lynch’s lawyers – his wife Neda, Jonathan Bloomer – a chairman at Morgan Stanley International – and his wife Judy, were recovered from the 50ft-yacht.
Speaking at a press conference, Chief Prosecutor of Termini Imerese, Ambrogio Cartosio announced that his office had opened an initial investigation into manslaughter. He said investigators “cannot exclude anything at all” and that it “could be a question of homicide”.
Prosecutors were asked about the Bayesian crew’s responsibilities considering all but one survived, and they confirmed that they were “concentrating on this particular aspect”.
They want to “discover how much they knew and to what extent all the people [passengers] were warned”.
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Hannah Lynch’s body was found in a separate cabin to the other five bodies
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The boat was carrying passengers as part of a planned celebration following Lynch’s recent personal success
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It has emerged that the yacht could have sunk in as little as 60 seconds, with questions mounting as to how the vessel could have sunk so rapidly.
Prosecutors have reconstructed the trapped passengers’ final moments, who appeared to have sought refuge on the port (left) side of the boat where the last air pockets remained.
During the search for survivors, divers discovered five bodies together in one cabin, with Hannah’s body being found alone in another.
Girolamo Bentivoglio Fiandra, a senior officer from the fire service, said: “He explained: “The yacht tended to the right and obviously the bodies tried to go to the other side and take refuge in their cabins. We found five bodies in a cabin on the left and another one in the third cabin on the left. They were in the higher part of the shipwreck.”
During the search for survivors, divers discovered five bodies together in one cabin, with Hannah’s body being found alone in another
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Describing the horror they discovered onboard, Fiandra said: “Inside it was a very confusing place, with wardrobes and furniture whirling all around us, and lots of mirrors reflecting back our lights at us. The bodies were all wedged in tight spots, with furniture on top or beside them. They were all stuck there.”
The boat was carrying passengers as part of a planned celebration following Lynch’s recent personal success relating to his company.
He was cleared of all charges by a US jury in the high-profile fraud case related to the sale of his software company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard (HP) for £8.6billion in 2011.
The guests were from Clifford Chance, the legal firm, and Invoke Capital, his own company, as well as his own family.
Source Agencies
