A group of divers investigating how Mike Lynch’s Bayesian superyacht sank made a startling discovery.
Water rescue teams have recovered crucial CCTV equipment from the British father-of-two’s boat which sank off the coast of Sicily, Italy, on August 19.
Prosecutors investigating the deadly incident deployed six elite Italian Navy divers who have made repeated trips to the wreckage of the tech mogul’s superyacht, which lies more than 160 feet below the water’s surface.
But now they have come across computers and hard drives that will be analysed in specialist laboratories, according to a report.
Electronic equipment will be examined to see if any data can be extracted or if there is video footage showing how the yacht sank that could solve the mystery of why and how the boat sank last month.
Mike Lynch and his daughter died when the Bayesian superyacht sank with 22 people on board on August 19 off the coast of Sicily
Divers have now recovered crucial CCTV equipment from the British father-of-two’s boat.
The Bayesian fell into a severe thunderstorm, believed to be a weather phenomenon called a downburst, which is similar to a small tornado.
Investigators will also try to determine whether any of the doors on board the ship were left open, allowing water in through the use of a hyperbaric chamber.
Lynch, her 18-year-old daughter Hannah and five others were killed when the Bayesian went down in a severe storm, believed to be a weather phenomenon called a downburst, similar to a small tornado.
Recaldo Thomas, the ship’s Antiguan-Canadian chef, Jonathan Bloomer, the president of Morgan Stanley International bank, his wife Judy, and Chris Morvillo, a lawyer for Clifford Chance, and his wife Neda, were the other victims of the August 19 tragedy.
Four of the victims are feared to have suffocated in air bubbles filled with carbon dioxide, according to their autopsies.
Autopsies carried out on the victims at Palermo’s Policlinico hospital so far revealed they had no water in their lungs, raising the terrifying possibility that they may have been conscious when the yacht sank, according to Italian media outlet La Republica.
Fifteen people, including Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, survived when they were rescued by a nearby yacht.
Following the disaster, the captain of the doomed Bayesian, James Cutfield, 51, is under investigation for manslaughter.
Kiwi Cutfield, along with two other members of his crew, are being investigated by Italian authorities for causing a deadly shipwreck and multiple counts of manslaughter.
Prosecutors are also investigating the ship’s British engineer, Tim Parker-Eaton, 56, and British sailor Matthew Griffith, 22, on the same charges.
Recaldo Thomas, head chef of the Bayesian, was the first person to be recovered after the sinking of the yacht
An Italian media outlet claimed the couple’s lungs “were not filled with water, nor were their stomachs or tracheas.”
A photo provided on August 19 by the Perini Navi Press Office shows the ‘Bayesiano’ sailing boat, in Palermo, Sicily, Italy.
However, under the Italian legal system, being placed under investigation does not imply guilt and does not necessarily mean that charges will be filed.
At a press conference held on Saturday at the Termini Imerese court, chief prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio said there may have been “behaviour that was not perfectly correct in relation to the responsibility that everyone had”.
Cartosio added: ‘It could be a homicide, but this is the beginning of the investigation, we cannot rule anything out… We will establish the responsibility of each element (crew).’
“I think it’s likely that crimes were committed, that it could be a case of homicide.”
Cartosio’s team will investigate whether the ship’s crew raised the alarm before escaping.
During an earlier press conference, the prosecutor in charge of the case, Raffaele Cammarano, was asked how it was possible for most of the crew to survive and said that the incident happened suddenly and that this question will be part of the investigation.
Cammarano suggested the passengers may not have been able to escape the yacht because they were asleep.
Asked why they were not woken up or alerted, he said it was something investigators were trying to sort out, adding that several of the bodies aboard the sunken yacht were found in a single cabin that was not theirs.
Authorities plan to raise the Bayesian and take it ashore to fully investigate how it sank just 16 minutes after being hit by the storm.
The work will be carried out by the ship’s owner, the British company Revton, controlled by Lynch’s widow, Angela Bacares.
Genoa-based diving company Drafinsub has reportedly been commissioned to use sonar and a submersible robot to examine the yacht and figure out the best plan to refloat it.
The boat trip was initially a celebration of Lynch’s acquittal in a US fraud case, before tragedy struck.
The businessman, who founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, was cleared in June of massive fraud related to its £8.64bn sale to US firm Hewlett Packard.
