An elite Italian navy unit is sending divers and robots down to the wreck of British tech tycoon Mike Lynch’s superyacht to investigate the tragic sinking that killed seven people.
Lynch’s yacht, the Bayesian, is currently lying more than 160ft below the waters surrounding Porticello, Sicily, after it sank in the early hours of the morning of August 19.
Seven people, including Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah who was due to start at Oxford University later this month, died after a freak storm hit the Sicilian port town.
Questions over how the £30 million vessel, which measured more than 180ft in length, sank so quickly that the seven of the 22 people onboard at the time died, have been raised by investigating authorities.
In an attempt to answer these questions, the Italian navy is sending down six divers from its elite Comsubin unit, the equivalent of the British Special Boat Service, a source close to the investigation told the Times.
The elite divers will be searching for electronic equipment, including CCTV and data storage, and looking to see if doors were left open at the time of the sinking.
An elite Italian navy unit is sending divers and robots down to the wreck of British tech tycoon Mike Lynch’s superyacht to investigate the tragic sinking (File image)
Lynch’s yacht, the Bayesian, (pictured) is currently lying more than 160ft below the waters surrounding Porticello, Sicily
Seven people, including Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah (both pictured), died after a freak storm hit the Sicilian port town
This evidence will be used to ‘check statements made by the crew of the yacht’, the source told the newspaper.
The vessel’s captain, New Zealander Mr Cutfield, 51, is among three people who are being probed by judicial authorities following the tragedy last month.
Chief engineer Tim Parker Eaton, 56, and Matthew Griffiths, 22, are both British and, like the captain, also both being investigated for their alleged involvement in the deaths of the seven people onboard the Bayesian.
Four of the victims are feared to have suffocated to death in air bubbles that filled with carbon dioxide, according to their autopsies.
Autopsies carried out on victims at Palermo’s Policlinico hospital so far revealed they had no water in their lungs, raising the frightening possibility that they may have been conscious as the yacht sank, according to Italian news outlet La Republica.
An Italian news outlet has claimed the couple’s lungs were ‘not full of water and neither were their stomachs or trachea’
The first autopsies were carried out on lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda (both pictured) were also found to have no water in their lungs in post-mortems conducted
Recaldo Thomas, chef on the Bayesian, was the first person to be recovered after the yacht sunk
The British-flagged Bayesian superyacht (pictured) was registered at an Isle of Man company called Revton
The £30 million vessel sank off the coast of the Italian island of Sicily at Porticello near Palermo on August 19
A handout photo made available on August 19 by Perini Navi Press Office shows the ‘Bayesian’ sailing boat, in Palermo, Sicily, Italy
Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer, 70, his wife Judy, as well as New York lawyer Chris Morvillo and his partner Neda had no signs of injuries, the Italian media suggests.
An autopsy carried out on Mike Lynch indicated that died of suffocation due to a lack of oxygen, while the autopsy carried out on his daughter Hanna was inconclusive.
Initial examinations of the Canadian-Antiguan onboard chef Recaldo Thomas indicated he died by drowning.
Although Cutfield, Eaton and Griffiths are all being being investigated by local prosecutor at Termini Imerese it does not mean charges will necessarily follow.
A magistrate will decide if they should face trial once the investigation has concluded and evidence presented to them.
For now, authorities said that efforts to raise the yacht from the bottom of Porticello’s waters will take at least two or three days.
The work will be carried out by the vessel’s owner, UK company Revton, which is controlled by Mr Lynch’s widow Angela Bacares.
They have reportedly tasked Genoa-based diving company Drafinsub to use sonar and a submersible robot to examine the yacht to discover the best plan to raise it.