Manslaughter considered by Sicily yacht sinking investigators

Italian authorities investigating the deaths of seven people in the sinking of a luxury yacht in Sicily say they are looking into potential crimes of “shipwreck and manslaughter”.

They stressed, however, that the investigation was in its initial stages and they were not currently looking at anyone specifically.

UK tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah were among those who died when the Bayesian went down off the coast of Porticello during a storm in the early hours of Monday morning.

It was previously believed the vessel may have sunk because of a waterspout, but the authorities now say the most likely cause was a localised, powerful wind known as a downburst.

The bodies of Jonathan Bloomer, a Morgan Stanley International bank chairman, his wife Judy Bloomer, Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo, and his wife Neda Morvillo were also recovered from the wreckage some 50m (164 ft) down, after days of deep dive searches with little visibility.

The body of Canadian-Antiguan national Recaldo Thomas, who was working as a chef on the superyacht, was recovered at the scene on Monday.

Post-mortems are set to be conducted.

The remaining 15 people who were on board the luxury yacht were rescued.

In a press conference on Saturday morning, Ambrogio Cartosio, chief prosecutor of the nearby town of Termini Imerese, said the coastguard had been called at 04:38 local time on Monday but the yacht had already sunk by the time crews had arrived.

Mr Cartosio told journalists he thought it was “probable that offences were committed” surrounding the sinking of the yacht.

He said they will ascertain whether the captain, crew, individuals in charge of supervision, the ship-builder, or others could bear responsibility.

“We will establish each element’s responsibility – that will be done by the inquiry, so we can’t do that prematurely,” he said.

“For me, it is probable that offences were committed – that it could be a case of manslaughter – but we can only establish that if you give us the time to investigate.”

Raffaele Macauda, deputy commander of the Palermo coastguard, said the weather at the time of the yacht’s sinking was abnormal, adding there were forecasts of winds and a storm alert.

There was no alert of a tornado, the deputy commander said.

Mr Macauda said: “Given that the conditions were such, there wasn’t anything to suggest there could be an extreme situation arising.

“There are vessels that can monitor, after all, these events and one would have thought that the captain had taken precautions.”

Deputy Prosecutor Raffaele Cammarano told journalists the Italian Air Force had confirmed the sinking was most likely caused by a downburst.

A downburst is a localised, powerful wind that descends from a thunderstorm, spreading out rapidly upon hitting the ground.

Girolamo Bentivoglio Fiandra from Palermo’s fire brigade said the Bayesian sank stern-first and then rolled onto its right side.

He explained that as a result, the victims then sought refuge in cabins on the left side of the vessel where “the last air bubbles formed”.

Local officials said they are looking into why some people on board were able to flee the vessel and others were not.

Speaking on behalf of the divers, Mr Fiandra said about 70 people were involved in an “intense” search operation each day, with 123 dives undertaken in total.

“We were operating at 50 metres depth and … there was very little visibility due to the weather conditions,” he said.

One of the divers involved in the operation told the media it was “difficult” getting into the yacht’s cabins and it required “very lengthy periods to remove obstacles” through them.

Mr Macauda said the coastguard is conducting in-depth environmental monitoring.

He adds that the owner of the Bayesian has expressed an interest in recovering the vessel from the sea floor, but the timing of this was uncertain.

Some experts have estimated it could take eight weeks to recover the yacht.

An official said the Italian authorities did not have the “exact information” about the yacht’s black box – a device that can record data including a ship’s position, speed, radar information, and sometimes audio.

Passengers on board the yacht were understood to have been celebrating Mr Lynch’s acquittal in a US fraud case.

The businessman, who founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, was cleared in June of carrying out fraud relating to its $11bn (£8.64bn) sale to US company Hewlett Packard.

Andrew Kanter, a close friend to Mr Lynch, said he was the “most brilliant” and “carrying person I have ever known”.

Meanwhile, friends of his daughter, Hannah, have described the 18-year-old as a “warm and beautiful soul”, while teachers have praised her “sky-high intellectual ability”.

In a statement, the Bloomer family described Jonathan and Judy Bloomer as “incredible people and an inspiration to many”.

“Our only comfort is that they are still together now,” the statement said.