Divers find 5 bodies in Mike Lynch’s sunken superyacht

Divers on a boat during the search and rescue operation for the Bayesian yacht that sunk off Sicily’s coast in August 2024.

Divers searching the shipwreck of tech tycoon Mike Lynch’s superyacht have found the bodies of five missing passengers.

The 183-foot Bayesian superyacht was carrying 22 people when it sank during stormy weather near Porticello, Palermo, on Monday.

Fifteen people were rescued, including Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares as well as the ship’s captain, 51-year-old James Cutfield of New Zealand, who prosecutors questioned for over two hours on Tuesday, The Guardian reported.

The body of Recaldo Thomas, the vessel’s chef, was found shortly after the yacht sank.

Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo, his wife Neda, Morgan Stanley’s International chair Jonathan Bloomer, and his wife Judy remain missing.

Two bodies, one of which is that of a “very powerful man,” were found in the hull of the boat behind two mattresses, La Repubblica said.

Another two were found inside the wreck of the Bayesian yacht, Sicily’s civil protection agency told the BBC.

A fifth body was also found by divers inside the yacht but has not yet been retrieved as of Wednesday, with recovery efforts concluded for the day and resuming on Thursday, Sicilian authorities told the BBC.

The identities of the bodies have not yet been publicly released.

Italian authorities are investigating the exact cause of the sinking while search crews continue to look for the missing passengers. They’ve also been gathering evidence for a criminal investigation, though no formal suspects have been publicly announced, the Associated Press reported.

Italy’s Coast Guard said it deployed a remotely operated robot to scan the seabed and take underwater pictures and videos to reconstruct the events for the prosecutor’s office.

Reuters has published images showing rescue personnel carrying what appears to be a green body bag off the port of Porticello, near the Sicilian city of Palermo:

Rescue personnel transported a body bag as they operated at a port to search for the missing near the Sicilian city of Palermo, Italy, on August 21, 2024. 

The search and rescue operation for the six people missing has been ongoing for three days since the 183-foot superyacht capsized.

A spokesperson for the local fire department told The Independent that the search is “complex,” adding that divers operate in 12-minute underwater shifts.

“We are trying to advance in tight spaces, but any single thing slows us down,” Luca Cari, a spokesman for the fire rescue service, told the AP. “An electric panel could set us back for five hours. These aren’t normal conditions. We’re at the limit of possibility.”

“It’s not a question of entering the cabin to inspect it,” Cari told the AP. “They’ve arrived at the level of the cabins, but it’s not like you can open the door.”

Italian news agency Ansa reported that the vessel capsized when a sea tornado, or water spout, hit the area during sudden storms.

It cited witnesses saying that the boat’s mast broke while it was anchored in the storm, causing it to lose balance and capsize.

Lynch is one of the UK’s leading tech entrepreneurs, having founded the software company Autonomy, which was sold to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion.

The sale resulted in a legal battle, with Lynch acquitted on fraud charges in the US in June.

According to reports, Lynch was celebrating the acquittal on the yacht trip before it capsized.

Parlemo’s municipal authorities and Italy’s Coast Guard didn’t immediately respond to request for comments.