Rescue efforts to save six people missing from Mike Lynch’s sunken superyacht turned into a full-scale recovery operation yesterday when four bodies were recovered from the water.
A fifth body was found inside the wreckage of the Bayesian but has not yet been recovered, while a sixth passenger remains missing.
Two of the four bodies recovered are believed to be British tech billionaire Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, who was due to start studying English at Oxford University this year.
Among the missing are Morgan Stanley boss Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy, and US citizens Chris Morvillo and his wife, jewellery designer Neda Morvillo. The body of one crew member, chef Recaldo Thomas, was found on Monday.
Search teams made the tragic discoveries yesterday as they searched the wreckage of the luxury yacht, which sank off the coast of Sicily after being hit by a gale on Monday morning.
Four bodies were found on the lower deck of the yacht and were taken to the port of Porticello, where a bell was rung each time.
Emergency services personnel gather on the dock as the body of one of the victims of the disaster is brought in.
British tech mogul Mike Lynch with his wife Angela Bacares, who survived the disaster
Rescuers hoped all six passengers could still be alive through airbags, although the chances of any survivors were accepted as unlikely.
Last night, efforts to recover a fifth body were suspended, while a sixth passenger remains missing. Official identification will take place in the coming days.
Under Italian law, the body must be identified by a family member or someone close to the victim.
Yesterday’s heartbreaking discovery was made by divers who have been searching the wreckage since the £30million yacht sank.
Search teams were joined yesterday by a remote-controlled submersible robot and divers who worked on the 2012 Costa Concordia disaster.
Investigators have questioned survivors, including Captain James Cutfield, 51, who was questioned for two hours.
A friend of Mr Lynch said the disaster that followed the tycoon’s acquittal on fraud charges in the United States was “a kind of Shakespearean tragedy”.
Yesterday’s development occurred as Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, who was among the 15 people rescued from the shipwreck, was anxiously awaiting news of her husband and daughter.
Hannah, who had just secured a place to study English literature at Oxford, had joined her parents at the Bayesian to celebrate her father’s acquittal on fraud charges.
Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer (pictured) and his wife are also missing.
Lynch’s lawyer Christopher Morvillo (pictured) and his wife Neda are also missing after the yacht sank.
Neda and Christopher Movillo (pictured together) had joined Mr Lynch on the trip to the Mediterranean.
Judy Bloomer, who is missing, is a supporter and former board member of the Eve Appeal, a charity that raises awareness and funds research into gynaecological cancer.
The tech mogul, once dubbed the “British Bill Gates,” made his fortune after creating his software company Autonomy in 1996.
The father-of-two had recently returned to his Loudham Hall estate, near Woodbridge, Suffolk, after spending almost a year under house arrest in the US, accused of artificially inflating the value of his company by selling it to Hewlett-Packard for almost £9bn in 2011. He was acquitted by a jury in June.
But celebrations were marred by tragedy when the 183ft yacht sank within minutes after being swamped by a freak tornado, known as a waterspout, half a mile off Porticello at 5am on Monday.
In a grim scene, search teams returned to the port several times yesterday to bring the dead to shore. On each occasion, emergency services formed an honour guard, shielding the bodies from public view as they were loaded into ambulances.
The first bodies were those of a “large man” and a woman, the sources said.
Hundreds of residents and tourists gathered to pay their respects, some bowing their heads as church bells could be heard ringing in the town near Palermo.
The divers are believed to have made the gruesome discovery after spotting bodies inside the yacht’s luxury cabins on the lower deck, which are difficult to access; one of them was lodged behind two mattresses. The complex operation to recover the bodies had to be carried out in stages, and the divers had to stop at a depth of 20 metres to decompress before resurfacing, according to local media.
The Bayesian (pictured) capsized during a severe thunderstorm on Monday morning.
Confirming the recovery of the four bodies, Sicily’s director general of civil protection, Salvo Cocina, told the Daily Telegraph: “On behalf of myself and my colleagues, I would like to express my deepest condolences to the families of the victims.”
He later said efforts to bring a fifth body to shore and locate the last missing passenger would resume today.
The death toll rises to six after the body of the yacht’s Canadian chef, Recaldo Thomas, was discovered near the wreck on Monday.
The Italian coast guard has refused to rule out the possibility that the missing could still be alive, with experts speculating that air pockets may have formed when the yacht sank.
However, rescue efforts are said to have been hampered because the massive vessel was still intact, filled with debris and lying on the seabed at a depth of more than 150ft. A breakthrough came when the 20 expert divers who had already spent two days tirelessly searching were joined by the team that worked on the 2012 Costa Concordia disaster.
Their arrival meant that the searchers were able to extend their immersion period to 20 minutes at a time, thanks to special mixtures contained in their tanks.
Previously, the depth of the wreck meant that trained divers could only stay underwater for a maximum of 12 minutes, two of which are needed to get on and off. The divers, in groups of three, had been searching the hull yesterday after ripping out a one-inch-thick window on the side opposite the six luxury guest cabins.
The superyacht (pictured) was moored off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo, when it was hit by an overseas tornado, known as a waterspout.
The search was also aided by a remote-controlled vehicle capable of operating on the seabed at depths of up to 300 metres. The robot can record videos and take detailed images that will be analysed by investigators.
Among those celebrating with Dr Lynch were Mr Morvillo, who represented the tycoon at his trial, and veteran businessman Mr Bloomer, who was a defence witness.
Italian media reported last night that the bodies of both men were among those washed ashore.
Brent Hoberman, a close friend of Dr Lynch and former chief executive of lastminute.com, described the disaster as a “Shakespearean tragedy”.
“Someone who spent 12 years defending his name, just clears his name, goes on a trip with the team that helped him do it to celebrate and then a one-in-a-million disaster hits his boat,” he said.
Former cabinet minister Lord Deben, a Conservative lord and long-standing friend of Dr Lynch, told Times Radio the tycoon returned to the UK to “start afresh” after winning his fraud case. “Gratitude is a word typically used to refer to him… the people he brought on board are clearly the people who made his triumph possible,” he added.
Among those celebrating on board was a senior partner at her firm Involve Capital, Charlotte Golunski, who saved her one-year-old daughter, Sofia, by clinging to her in the raging waves.
The 35-year-old Briton and her baby have been discharged after being treated in hospital, as has Sofia’s father, James Emslie.
Dr Lynch’s Mediterranean party is said to have attracted so many guests and well-wishers that they had to take turns staying on the Bayesian. Video taken from other boats showed the celebrations taking place in the days leading up to the tragedy. Authorities have launched an investigation and one expert revealed that one of the first enquiries would be whether the yacht’s crew had closed the access hatches to the ship before the storm.
Prosecutors are already questioning witnesses and survivors, including the captain, Mr Cutfield, 51, from New Zealand.
CCTV footage from the moment of the tragedy shows the impressive ship, with its 246-foot mast (one of the tallest in the world), disappearing in a matter of seconds as a violent storm clouds the view.
In a separate incident, Lynch’s co-defendant in her fraud trial, Stephen Chamberlain, died after being hit by a car while jogging in Cambridgeshire on Saturday.
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