The plan to raise the Bayesian from the seabed will be confirmed in the coming weeks, after divers and robots finish inspecting the doomed luxury superyacht.
The 56-metre (184-foot) ship has been underwater since it sank off Sicily on August 19, killing British tech billionaire Mike Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah and five others.
Prosecutors are investigating the captain and two British crew members as they conduct an inquiry into culpable shipwreck and suspected multiple homicide.
They therefore want the British-flagged yacht raised as soon as possible to determine whether the vessel was flooded because external hatches and doors were left open.
The trio under investigation since late August include James Cutfield, the captain; Tim Parker Eaton, the engineer in charge of securing the yacht’s engine room; and Matthew Griffith, a deckhand who was on watch the night of the disaster.
Divers from Italy’s fire service in Porticello on August 23 as they recover the bodies of the dead.
Italian divers inspect the wreck of the Bayesian yacht off Sicily on August 23.
A fire service diving team leaves Porticello, heading for a rescue site in Sicily, August 23.
Now, a spokesman for the Italian coast guard has said The timesWe expect the plan for Bayesian augmentation to be submitted to us for approval within a few weeks. Everyone wants to move forward quickly.
The £30m yacht lies capsized on its starboard side about 50 metres below sea level near the fishing port of Porticello after sinking in a freak storm.
Divers from Italy’s fire service removed the bodies, while Italian navy special forces divers were called in to recover the ship’s data recorder for CCTV evidence.
The fundraiser will be funded by the Bayesian’s owner, British firm Revtom, controlled by Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, who was one of the 15 survivors.
Genoa-based diving company Drafinsub has used sonar and robot-recorded video to map the yacht’s hull, anchor chain and surrounding seabed.
Hannah Lynch with her father Mike Lynch. They both died in the sinking of their superyacht last month
The Bayesian (file photo) sank on August 19 off the coast of Sicily amid severe stormy weather
Mike Lynch with his wife Angela Bacares, who managed to escape the disaster off Sicily
Drafinsub has now completed its study and will hand over its data to Revtom, which used it to carry out the work.
And the Italian coast guard told the paper that Revtom will now “study the data, choose the company that will carry out the lifting of the ship and present to us and the insurers its plan for the operation, which we will approve.”
Chief Prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio, who is leading the investigation, said earlier that his team will consider every possible element of liability, including those of the captain, the crew, those in charge of supervision and the yacht’s manufacturer.
Investigators are focusing on how a sailing ship deemed “unsinkable” by its manufacturer, the Italian shipyard Perini Navi, sank while a nearby sailboat remained virtually unscathed.
Prosecutors said the event was “extremely fast” and could have been a “downburst” – a localized and powerful wind that descends from a thunderstorm and spreads rapidly upon hitting the ground.
Divers prepare to carry out inspections of the Bayesian wreck in Porticello on August 23
A diver wades into the water off Sicily on August 23 as the team conducts an inspection.
All crew members survived except the chef, but six passengers were trapped in the yacht’s hull and died.
The Bayesian is only expected to rise once 18,000 litres of fuel have been removed from its tank to prevent it from polluting the water.
The operation to lift the yacht out of the water could take between six and eight weeks and will involve cranes and up to 40 divers.
Nick Sloane, who led the operation to recover the Costa Concordia cruise ship that sank in 2012, said this would cost up to £12.7m.
Last month he told La Repubblica that the work should be finished by mid-October, without specifying the reasons.
The engineer explained that platforms will be built and that bringing the yacht to the surface will have to be done “very, very slowly,” adding: “The boat has to be recovered as it is, in one piece, trying to keep it as intact as possible.”
Bank boss Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy died in the superyacht disaster on August 19.
Clifford Chance’s attorney, Chris Morvillo, and his wife, Neda Morvillo, were also among the dead.
Underwater conditions have been described as “complex” and “prohibitive” for divers.
Vincenzo Zagarola, who was part of the Italian coastguard operations, previously told The Sun it had been “extremely rough” and called it an “18-storey building full of water”.
This comes after a lawyer representing the builder of the Bayesian was sacked after filing a £186m claim against Ms Lynch and the crew without permission.
Tommaso Bertuccelli, a lawyer working with The Italian Sea Group (TISG), filed the brief last week stating that responsibility for the yacht’s sinking lies with Ms Lynch and the crew.
But on Monday, a source at TISG confirmed that the lawsuit had been filed “without his knowledge or consent” and Bertuccelli had been fired as a result.
The body of chef Recaldo Thomas was discovered on the day of the sinking last month
Meanwhile, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), the US technology giant, is continuing its pursuit of £3bn from Lynch’s estate.
Mrs Lynch and her family boarded the yacht after Mr Lynch won a lengthy court case in the United States.
He faced 15 fraud charges relating to the £8.8bn sale of his technology company Autonomy to HPE in 2011. Had he lost the case he would have been jailed for the rest of his life, but a jury acquitted him of all charges in June.
However, earlier in 2022, HPE won a separate High Court legal battle heard in Britain that resulted in a claim for £3bn in damages, which they now say is owed by Ms Lynch.
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