Neil Johnston ;Albert Tait ;Alex Barton ;James Titcomb andLiv Jones
Lawyer and chairman among those missing
Salvatore Cocina, head of the Civil Protection in Sicily, said Chris Morvillo, a lawyer at Clifford Chance and Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International, were also among the missing people.
Meanwhile, Italian media said the man who died was the yacht’s onboard chef.
Did Bayesian superyacht’s 237ft mast cause it to sink?
Bayesian’s 237ft metal mast may have played a part in the sinking of the superyacht off the coast of Sicily, experts have suggested.
The yacht, seemingly named after the mathematical theory which Mike Lynch used to make his millions in the tech industry, foundered in the small hours of Monday morning.
Key among potential reasons for the loss of the vessel will be its most striking feature – the aluminium mast.
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Lynch’s co-defendant in fraud trial died in car crash on weekend
Mike Lynch’s co-defendant in his US fraud trial died in a road accident on Saturday days before the tycoon went missing off the coast of Sicily.
Stephen Chamberlain was hit by a car during the accident over the weekend in Cambridgeshire.
Chamberlain faced the same charges of fraud and conspiracy as his former boss Lynch for allegedly scheming to inflate the value of his company Autonomy before it was sold to Hewlett Packard.
A source told The Telegraph: “Our dear client and friend Steve Chamberlain was fatally struck by a car on Saturday while out running.
“He was a courageous man with unparalleled integrity, and we deeply miss him. He fought successfully to clear his good name, which lives on through his wonderful family.”
‘A holiday day at sea turned into a tragedy’
“At around 4:30 in the morning it was gone. A beautiful vessel where there had been a party. A normal holiday day spent happily at sea turned into a tragedy,” a witness told Italian news agency ANSA.
He continued: “The vessel was not far from the port. It would have taken 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 the sinking.”
Rescue operation will continue overnight
The rescue operation for the missing six passengers will continue overnight, Salvo Cocina of Sicily’s civil protection agency has said.
A specialist caving search and rescue diving team has also arrived and hoped to “achieve results” overnight or early tomorrow morning, the BBC reported.
Superyacht guests were celebrating Mike Lynch’s acquittal when disaster struck
Guests were celebrating the acquittal of Mike Lynch, the British tech entrepreneur, on the superyacht Bayesian when the vessel sank off the coast of Italy.
Mr Lynch had gathered guests from Clifford Chance, the legal firm, and Invoke Capital, his own company, after being cleared in June of fraud over the multi-billion-dollar sale of Autonomy.
He was found not guilty on all counts of an accusation of inflating the value of the company, which he sold to the US tech giant Hewlett-Packard for £8.6 billion in 2011.
Read the full story here
‘We should have found something by now’
Francesco Venuto, the spokesman for Sicily’s civil protection agency, has told the BBC that they “think [the missing people] must be there [in the boat]”.
“We’ve been searching all day with helicopters and boats, we’ve found nothing. That wouldn’t make sense, in these conditions we should have found something by now,” he added.
Lynch’s wife in wheelchair following incident
According to La Repubblica, Bacares is in a wheelchair, with abrasions on her feet that prevent her from walking and bandages on other parts of her body.
The newspaper said that she told doctors that at 4am the boat tilted and she and her husband woke up.
At first, they were not worried but then there was a scene of confusion as glass shattered and everything slipped.
‘In the wrong place at the wrong time’
The boat sank after a tornado over the water known as a waterspout struck the area overnight, said Salvo Cocina of Sicily’s civil protection agency.
One body has been recovered, and police divers were trying to reach the hull of the ship, which was resting at a depth of 50 meters (163 feet) off Porticello, near Palermo, where it had been anchored.
The Italian coast guard said the yacht had a crew of 10 people and 12 passengers.
A sudden fierce storm had battered the area overnight, and struck where the 56-meter (184-foot) British-flagged Bayesian had been moored.
“They were in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Cocina said, noting that another superyacht nearby wasn’t as badly damaged and was able to rescue some of the 15 survivors.
Who is Mike Lynch? Britain’s ‘Bill Gates’ who was acquitted of £8bn fraud just two months ago
Just weeks ago, Mike Lynch was walking out of a San Francisco courtroom a free man with tears in his eyes.
The technology tycoon known as “Britain’s Bill Gates” had improbably beaten the odds in a bitter US legal dispute with technology giant HP, convincing a jury that he was not guilty of claims of massive fraud.
Cleared after a 13-year legal fight, the entrepreneur vowed to fight to reform Britain’s extradition laws after he was flown to San Francisco to face trial and kept under house arrest.
Read the full profile here
‘I held her afloat with all my strength’: British mother describes rescuing her baby from drowning
Among the 15 survivors is a one-year-old British baby called Sofia who was saved by her mother, Charlotte Golunski.
Ms Golunski, an Oxford graduate and senior associate at Invoke, had fought to prevent her child from drowning. While all around her she could hear the screams of the terrified passengers and crew, she kept her grip on her baby to stop her from slipping beneath the waves.
The child’s mother told Republicca, the Italian newspaper: “I held her afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning.
“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.”
Read the full story here
Mike Lynch was awarded an OBE for services to enterprise
Mike Lynch was made an OBE for services to enterprise in 2006.
That same year, he was appointed to the board of the BBC, and was later elected to then-prime minister David Cameron’s council for science and technology in 2011.
He advised Mr Cameron on subjects including “the opportunities and risks of the development of artificial intelligence and the government’s role in the regulation of these technologies”.
Mr Lynch is among six tourists missing after the luxury yacht sank in bad weather off the coast of Sicily, sources said.
Four of the missing passengers are British and two are American, Italian news website la Repubblica stated.
UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch sending team
The UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch is sending a team of four inspectors to conduct a “preliminary assessment” into the sinking of the Bayesian, a government spokesman said.
The Bayesian was registered in London and flew the Red Ensign, meaning UK authorities will be involved in the investigation into why she foundered.
Specialist divers are being flown to Sicily from the Italian mainland
Specialist cave divers are being flown to Sicily from the Italian mainland to assist in the search for survivors of the superyacht as hopes fade of finding any of the six alive.
Luca Cari, spokesman for the firefighting service, told The Telegraph firefighter divers from Palermo and the Sardinian towns of Cagliari and Sassari had been working tirelessly at a depth of 50 metres since the early hours of Monday morning when the alarm was sounded.
But Mr Cari said the spaces inside the luxury yacht were so small that specially trained cave divers and their equipment were required to access the cabins.
“We are working non-stop with our divers and our helicopter. But we are talking about very small confined spaces inside the yacht so we need the specialist cave divers and their equipment,” he said.
He declined to say whether divers had identified bodies through the portholes of the sunken yachtbut said as time went on it was increasingly unlikely that the firefighters would find any more survivors.
Divers search for bodies after superyacht sinks in Sicily
Divers involved in the rescue operation for the missing passengers of the Bayesian have been captured entering the water as part of the search effort.
Three divers in orange wetsuits are seen in the water off the coast of Sicily before they commence an underwater search for those that are missing.
Mike Lynch has been called the ‘British Bill Gates’
Mike Lynch, the British technology tycoon, is one of six tourists missing in a superyacht sinking.
Mr Lynch founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, and made his name as one of Britain’s most influential entrepreneurs through the company.
He has been described at points as the Bill Gates of Britain, for founding the company which became one of the biggest enterprise software firms on the planet.
He negotiated an 11 billion dollar (£8.64 billion) sale of Autonomy to Hewlett Packard, which generated a more than 800 million US dollar windfall for him.
But the sale also kicked off a 13-year legal saga. It was only in June this year that Mr Lynch was cleared of charges alleging he orchestrated a fraud and conspiracy leading up to the deal, which turned into a costly albatross for HP.
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 that ended in June.
Bayesian superyacht specs
The Bayesian is 56 metres long (183ft) and has a 75m (246ft) long mast.
The vessel was in front of the port of Porticello, in the province of Palermo, when the severe weather struck.
Its anchor was down and the strong gust would have caused the vessel to lose balance which is believed to have led to the shipwreck.
Who is Mike Lynch?
Mr Lynch, 59, founded the software company Autonomy in 1996 and became one of Britain’s most high-profile businessmen when he sold it to Hewlett Packard for £7bn in 2011.
He spent more than a decade seeking to clear his name after HP accused Autonomy executives of illegal accounting practices in 2012.
Mr Lynch was charged with fraud in the US in 2018 and was found not guilty in June in a stunning legal victory. He had only recently returned to the United Kingdom and had planned to defend wrongfully convicted Britons.
Ms Bacares holds much of his fortune. The couple have had two daughters, who are 21 and 18.
Survivor leaves coast guard headquarters after sailboat sank off Sicily
A survivor leaves the coast guard headquarters after a superyacht sank at around 5am in front of Porticello in the province of Palermo on Monday.
The 50-metre vessel reportedly had mostly British nationals on board and 15 people were saved by coast guard patrol boats and firefighters, including a one-year-old child.
Earlier today the coast guard issued a statement saying it had rescued 15 people from the yacht that had 22 people onboard.
The term Bayesian explained
The term Bayesian refers to a branch of statistics pioneered by Thomas Bayes, an 18th century mathematician and vicar.
Much of modern artificial intelligence and computer analysis is underpinned by Bayesian inference, which involves updating the probabilities of various scenarios based on ongoing evidence.
The statistical model was crucial to Autonomy’s technology, which searched through large amounts of corporate data to find information.
In 2021, Mike Lynch said that: “Bayes deserves far more historical credit for the place he occupies among the forefathers of information theory”
Mr Lynch has often used playful naming conventions. Conference rooms at Autonomy were named after James Bond villains, another interest of his, while his dogs have named after engineering terms such as Valve, Tappet and Switch.
Doctor describes mother’s ordeal
Dr Domenico Cipolla, head of emergency room at the Giovanni di Cristina paediatric hospital in Palermo, has described the experience of Charlotte, the British mother who was onboard the Bayesian when it sank.
DrCipolla said: “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.
“She told me that she was in the water for no more than two, three seconds, and she managed to save the baby, to keep her arms up, and then, with the others, they were able to get on the lifeboat, and then, I think, they were rescued by the coast guard.
“They are all in good condition. We managed to get the parents to talk (to each other) on the phone, all the doctors and nurses were all very moved, also because the little girl is fine, the prognosis is good and we are carrying out tests just to be careful.”
Captain of another boat describes saving 15 Bayesian passengers
The captain of a nearby boat that rescued the 15 people has described the conditions in which the Bayesian sank last night.
Karsten Borner said his own vessel, the Sir Robert BP, was battered by very strong gusts in the early hours of the morning, managing to stabilise it while anchored by using the engine.
He said as they were doing this, they noticed the Bayesian nearby and manoeuvred to avoid hitting it.
“We managed to keep the ship in position, and after the storm was over, we noticed that the ship behind us was gone.”
Details of the superyacht
The Bayesian is 56 metres long (183ft) according to ship tracking website VesselFinder.
The luxury super yacht is said to have a 75m (246ft) long mast.
She was built in 2008 by Italian company Perini Navi with an initial asking price of 35 million euros (£30 million) according to Nautic Link.
According to the leasing company Yacht Charter Fleet, the boat is furnished with a “Japanese-style” interior.
It has been designed to accommodate up to 12 guests in six suites, along with ten crew members.
The Bayesian was awarded the best exterior styling at the 2009 World Superyacht Awards.
Male body recovered, Vigili del Fuoco confirms
Vigili del Fuoco, Italy’s fire and rescue service, has confirmed a male body has been recovered from the yacht.
In a post on X, it said the “lifeless body of a man recovered [has been] from the wreck by the divers.”
It posted the statement alongside a clip of the rescue effort with footage showing helicopters, boats and divers carrying out a search operation.
#Palermo, naufragio imbarcazione a Porticello: recuperato dai #sommozzatori dei #vigilidelfuoco il corpo senza vita di un uomo, all'esterno del relitto. Proseguono le operazioni di ricerca con il coordinamento in mare della @guardiacostiera [#19agosto 11:30] pic.twitter.com/Y2m9o5ohCe
— Vigili del Fuoco (@vigilidelfuoco) August 19, 2024
Four Britons missing after yacht sinks off Sicily
One person has died and four British nationals are missing after a yacht sank off the coast of Sicily, Italian media has reported.
The 50-metre boat, which is called the “Bayesian”, sank at around 5am in the stretch of sea in front of Porticello in the province of Palermo.
The vessel reportedly had mostly British nationals on board and 15 people were saved by coast guard patrol boats and firefighters, including a one-year-old child.
A mother saved her one-year-old from drowning, local media reports
A mother has told of how she kept her one-year-old daughter alive after a yacht sank off the coast of Sicily.
Charlotte, a survivor of the incident said her child is now being treated in the Di Cristina hospital, in Palermo, following the ordeal in which the Bayesian sank due to severe winds.
The mother, who is said to be a British tourist, told la Repubblica, a local news website: “I held her afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning.
“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.”
Charlotte said her husband James has been taken to Civico hospital in Palermo after suffering minor injuries.
La Repubblica said that the father asked about his daughter’s health during a phone call with his wife.
According to the paper, he said: “How is the little girl? Is she there with you?”
His wife reassured him and they promised to hug each other again soon, the site reported.
Shadow foreign minister pays tribute to those involved in incident
Alicia Kearns, shadow foreign minister for Europe, wrote on X: “Desperately sorry to hear of the capsizing of the Bayesian - a heartbreaking incident.
“My thoughts are with all the families of those lost at sea, and those recovering following the rescue operation, I’m sure the foreign office will be providing consular support to British Nationals and their families.”
‘I saw it suddenly disappear’, says Porticello fisherman
Pietro Asciutto, a fisherman from Porticello who witnessed the sinking, told ANSA: “I was at home when the tornado hit. I immediately closed all the windows. Then I saw the boat, it had only one mast, it was very large. I saw it sink suddenly.”
He added: “I think the tornado came from Porticello. Shortly after I went down to the Bay of Santa Nicolicchia to get a better look at what was happening.
“The boat was still floating, then suddenly it disappeared. I saw it sink with my own eyes.”
Sinking of Bayesian ‘strange’, says former chief stewardess
A former chief stewardess of the Bayesian has described news of the yacht’s sinking as “strange” because the boat had withstood the choppiest of seas.
Monica Jensen, 48, told The Telegraph: “It seems a bit strange. We have been in bad weather with it, crossed the Atlantic.
“It’s been all over. These things definitely don’t happen very often.”
Ms Jensen worked on the 56m superyacht from November 2018 to October 2020 for a private owner and said the boat had since been sold.
She accompanied the boat on two Caribbean seasons and cruised around Italy, Malta, Greece and the Balearics.
Ms Jensen said the crew would have been well-drilled on the evacuation process.
She said: “You can’t work on a boat without the right certificates, training and you do drills monthly.”
Coast guard statement
The Italian Coast Guard said in a statement: “This morning at about 5am, following a violent gale, a 56-metre yacht named Bayesian and flying the UK flag sank off Porticello.
“The first shipwrecked were rescued by a boat in the immediate vicinity and brought ashore by four coast guard vessels, which promptly responded to the scene from Porticello, Termini Imerese and Palermo.
“Initial information received from the yacht crew indicated that 22 people (10 crew members and 12 passengers) were onboard the yacht.
“There are currently 15 people rescued and seven missing (one crew member and six passengers), of British, American and Canadian nationality.
“Of the people recovered, eight were transported to local hospitals. The vessel is reported to have sunk on a seabed of about 50 metres.
“The search continues unabated with naval, air and underwater resources, including the Messina Coast Guard Diving Unit.”
Mayor makes statement about incident
Filippo Tripoli, the mayor of Bagheria in Sicily, said: “This morning, off the coast of Santa Flavia, a foreign boat sunk due to bad weather, 15 people recovered and seven missing.
“Already all the police forces and emergency services are operational and our Red Cross volunteers are present.”
‘Captain should not be blamed’, says local businessman
Bartolomeo Lo Coco, who owns the Tosto Chiosco cafe in Porticello, said it was common for rental yachts and boats to sail through the fishing village, adding that the captain should not be blamed for what had occurred because the weather had been so unpredictable.
“This was a terrible misfortune that no-one could have foreseen. It is nobody’s fault, the captain should not be blamed.”
Lo Coco said Carabinieri police, coast guard and firefighters were still searching the port. He stressed that the yacht was at a depth of 50 to 60 metres.
People in ‘mourning’, says local business owner
Bartolomeo Lo Coco, who owns the Tosto Chiosco cafe in Porticello, said those in the port were in “mourning” following the deeply shocking incident.
He said no one could have predicted the storm and the whirlwind that appeared to have caused the accident.
“We are in mourning here, all of us are in mourning,” he told The Telegraph. “We have never seen anything like this, ever. There is a very serious tragedy.”
His kiosk, which serves snacks and sandwiches, overlooks the water in Porticello.
He said the whirlwind, which occurred in the early hours of Monday, had not only caused the tragic accident but also widespread damage in the port.
He added: “This wasn’t a thunderstorm, this was a whirlwind. It happened all of a sudden. There is a lot of damage here.Boats were dislodged from their moorings and restaurant tables were broken within minutes and sent flying several metres.”
Body of man recovered in search, local media reports
The body of a man has been recovered from the seabed in the search for missing people following a shipwreck off the coast of Sicily, according to il Fatto Quotidiano.
The local news website said: “A body was found and recovered by rescuers on the seabed. Firefighters and the coast guard are looking for six other passengers, while fifteen have been rescued.”
Among the survivors is a one-year-old girl who is being treated in the Civico hospital with her mother, the site said.
According to witnesses, the vessel was in front of the port of Porticello when the severe weather struck.
The anchor was down and the strong gust would have caused the vessel to lose balance which is believed to have led to the shipwreck.
Yacht designed for luxury travel
The Bayesian was designed for luxury travel, according to local media.
Tgcom24 described the yacht as an “elegant 56-metre sailing boat” weighing 473 tons. It was said to be flying a United Kingdom flag when it sank.
The online newspaper said it was built by the Perini Navi Viareggio shipyard in February 2008, before being refitted in 2020.
The boat had arrived in Porticello after a stop in Milazzo and a passage in front of Cefalù, Tgcom24 reported.
Watch: Search underway
Aerial footage of the search has been posted on social media by Vigili del Fuoco, Italy’s fire and rescue service.
The post on X, formerly Twitter, said: “A Palermo boat wreck off the coast of Porticello, 15 people saved, seven reported missing.
“Since dawn firefighters and divers have engaged in the search. The wreck has been identified 50 metres deep.”
Vessel ‘caught middle of a hurricane’
The BAIA Santa Nicolicchia restaurant in Porticello wrote on its Facebook page that the yacht sank at around 4am after being caught in a hurricane.
They called it an “unbelievabletragedy”, adding that they were “lost for words”.
The post read: “Last picture I took at 10pm. The yacht on the left sank at 4.05am, caught in the middle of the hurricane 300 metres from the port of Porticello, next to another sailboat that provided rescue.
“It looks like there are 22 on board but unfortunately seven missing, they’re still afraid inside the hull.
“Unbelievable tragedy tonight. I’m out of words.”
Four Britons missing
Four Britons are reported to be missing after a yacht sank in a stretch of sea in front of Porticello.
Seven people aremissing in total, including four Britons, one Canadian, two Americans and theship’s cook.
The vessel reportedly had mostly British nationals on board and15 people were saved by coast guard patrol boats and firefighters, including a one-year-old child.
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