Body believed to be Mike Lynch’s daughter found after yacht disaster

Porticello — Italian rescue divers have found the body of the last person missing, believed to be Mike Lynch’s daughter, after the British tech entrepreneur’s superyacht sank off Sicily this week, a source close to the matter said on Friday.

The British-flagged Bayesian, a 56m superyacht carrying 22 passengers and crew, was anchored off the port of Porticello, near Palermo, when it capsized and sank on Monday within minutes of being struck by a predawn storm.

A judicial investigation has been opened into the sinking, which has baffled naval marine experts, who say a boat like the Bayesian, built by Italian high-end yacht manufacturer Perini, should have withstood the storm.

The CEO of The Italian Sea Group, which owns Perini, said the shipwreck was the result of a string of “indescribable, unreasonable errors” made by the crew, and ruled out any design or construction failings.

Pulling the wreck out of the sea, where it is now lying on its right side, apparently intact, at a depth of about 50m, may help investigators determine what happened to it, but the operation is likely to be complex and costly.

Nick Sloane, the SA engineer who led the operation to salvage the Costa Concordia cruise liner that sank in 2012, said in Italian media interviews on Friday that the operation would cost up to €15m.

He told La Repubblica newspaper the yacht’s salvage would have to be completed by mid-October, and take six to eight weeks, including preparation work. Bringing the yacht to the surface will have to be done “very, very slowly”, and might take a couple of days, he said.

Reuters