Bystanders on the quayside in Porticello, Sicily, as rescue workers and divers worked late into the night Tuesday in a race against to time to try to find six people missing from a superyacht owned by British tech-billonaire Mike Lynch that went down in a storm in the earlly hours of Monday with him and his wife, daughter and 19 other guests and crew on board. Photo by Igor Petyx/EPA-EFE
Aug. 21 (UPI) — Rescuers racing to find six people missing from a superyacht that sank off the coast of Sicily were using a remote-controlled underwater vehicle to search the wreck Wednesday.
The underwater vehicle, or ROV, has been deployed because the depth at which British tech billionaire Mike Lynch’s 184-foot-long yacht is lying on the seabed of the Mediterranean means specialist divers can only spend 10 minutes maximum at the site before they have to resurface.
Patrol boats of the coastguard, which is coordinating the operation, continued to search on the surface but the main focus is on the wreck due to the fact the sailboat sank after a direct hit from a tornado-like waterspout in a violent storm that struck at around 4 a.m. local time Monday when guests were sleeping in their cabins and how quickly it went down, about three to five minutes according to survivors.
Specialist cave divers deployed by the Palermo Fire Department who have been struggling to get inside the superyacht’s hull, which is largely intact 164 feet down on the seafloor, managed to enter Tuesday via an inch-thick glass pane in its side using custom jacks specially made by a locksmith in nearby Porticello, the Telegraph reported.
They reached the main salon on one of the upper decks but their route further into the interior of the wreck was blocked, strewn with objects, furniture and electrical cables.
A ER doctor in Palermo where some of the 15 survivors were treated said they had described the incident as “apocalyptic,” as they fought to survive in mountainous seas in pitch darkness.
Briton, Charlotte Golunski, 35, described sleeping on deck with her 1-year-old daughter Sophia when the vessel began to roll from side to side before they found themselves in the water.
She briefly lost sight of the child before getting ahold of her again and holding her above the waves “with all her strength” until they were hauled aboard the Bayesian’s life raft which had been deployed by other guests.
One body has been recovered and identified as Antigua-based Canadian national Recaldo Thomas, the vessel’s chef, the Italian coastguard confirmed to Sky News, but Lynch, 59, and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah remain unaccounted for.
The other four missing are Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer; his wife, Judy Bloomer; American lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda.
Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation into the tragedy with a focus on how the $39 million yacht, which was built 650 miles away in La Spezia, sank so quickly when other smaller vessels caught in the storm remained afloat and whether windows and watertight hatches had been left open.
Former U.K. Marine Accident Investigation Branch principal inspector Gavin Pritchard said the accident was unprecedented.
“One of the first questions that accident investigators ask is, has anything like this ever happened before? And I have to say, having observed this tragic event, I honestly can’t think of anything similar to this.”
A team of four inspectors from MAIB, which is involved because the Bayesian is a British-flagged vessel, are at the scene to try to establish a cause for the sinking so that any safety findings can be learned and shared with the maritime sector.
The investigation bureau does not consider legal liability.