Brit investigators fly Sicily to probe sinking of superyacht Bayesian

Specialist divers searching the wreck of the British superyacht Bayesian were among the team of rescuers scrambled to deal with the sinking of the Costa Concordia. 

A frantic hunt is underway to find the six people still missing following the Bayesian’s shock sinking off the coast of Sicily on Monday morning. 

The £30million luxury vessel – owned by British tech mogul Mike Lynch – capsized after being battered by tornado-forced wind. 

Specialist divers are this morning resuming efforts to get into the wreck of the 187ft British-flagged vessel – with  Mr Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter among the passengers missing and now feared dead. 

Italian news website il Giornale now reports that some of the frogmen deployed today also supported rescue efforts onboard the sunken cruise ship the Costa Concordia.

The Costa Concordia partially sank in January 2012 after it struck a rock off the coast of Tuscany, killing 33 people.

Meanwhile, four British personnel from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch are on their way to the Sicilian city of Palermo to carry out a preliminary assessment.

The team of UK experts will join a group of Italian specialists to try and work out exactly how the Bayesian – named after the mathematical theory Mike Lynch used to make his millions in the tech industry – went down. 

Mystery still surrounds the tragedy. However, experts fear the boat’s large, 237ft metal mast – one of the tallest in the world – may have played a part in the disaster. 

The yacht had been anchored offshore from Porticello, having sailed from the seaside village of Cefalu, when it was hit by a freak waterspout caused by bad weather and sank near Palermo. 

It is feared a freak gust of wind, reaching speeds of 55mph, may have caused the yacht’s distinctive aluminium mast to buckle and snap, forcing the ship to sink. 

The colossal rigging combined with the yacht’s relatively shallow keel of about 16ft under the waterline, could have led to the vessel to capsizing more easily, it was last night claimed.

There are also theories that oppressive overnight temperatures of 27C (80C) could have prompted passengers to leave portholes and windows open – speeding up the sinking when the high winds hit. 

A third theory is that If Bayesian dropped her anchor into soft mud, she could have dragged her anchor across the seabed as the tornado-force winds hit her. The moving yacht could have then hit an obstruction such as a rock.

The disaster took place at 5am. But local reports claim that while the Bayesian sank, other vessels in the vicinity remained afloat despite the powerful wind gusts.

It comes as the yacht’s former chief stewardess Monica Jensen, 48, admitted the disaster was ‘a bit strange’ because she’s crossed the Atlantic on the boat and it withstood bad weather ‘all over’.

Last night, Mr Lynch – once dubbed the British Bill Gates and worth an estimated £852million and his daughter Hannah, 18 – who completed her A-levels this summer and has a place to read English at Oxford University – were among six missing and feared dead.

The body of one man, thought to be an onboard chef, has been found, while specialist divers fear those unaccounted for could be in the hull of the ship after getting trapped in their cabins.

And in an extraordinary twist, the tragedy comes days after Stephen Chamberlain, an ex-colleague of Mr Lynch – who he had successfully fought the fraud case with – died after being hit by a car.

Ms Jensen worked on the Bayesian from November 2018 to October 2020 for a private owner, and said it was then sold.

She was onboard for two Caribbean seasons and cruised around Italy, Malta, Greece and the Balearics on the yacht.

She told The Telegraph: ‘It seems a bit strange. We have been in bad weather with it, crossed the Atlantic. It’s been all over. These things definitely don’t happen very often.’

Matthew Shank, chairman of the Maritime Search and Rescue Council, told Radio 4 this morning: ‘There were weather warnings out that evening for intense thunderstorms. They are still incredibly rare weather events. 

‘Given the rarity of these events there isn’t really much the captains or the crew could do to prepare for these events given how rare they are.

‘Reports that people who were in the life raft have had to enter the life raft from the water, and that indicates to me that this emergency has happened very, very quickly. 

‘People haven’t had time to enter the life raft from the vessel, they’ve had to enter from the water.’

As the yacht began to sink, a member of the crew fired a distress flare which alerted vessels nearby.

Mr Shank added: ‘One of the captains from the anchorage said he saw the vessel there one minute and then the next minute the yacht was gone and all he saw was the red flare which indicates to me that this has been a catastrophic incident which has gone very quickly.’

The yacht – carrying 10 crew members and 12 passengers – had the world’s tallest aluminium mast at almost 250ft.

The enormous mast could have been what caused the vessel to capsize and sink rapidly, according to an expert. 

It broke during the waterspout, causing the ship to sink after the weight of the mast took the hull beyond the ‘down-flooding angle’, technical consultant and nautical expert Gino Ciriaci told Italian website Corriere Della Sera.

The yacht is owned by Revtom, a company registered on the Isle of Man. Revtom’s legal owner is Angela Bacares, Mr Lynch’s wife.

Emergency divers found wreckage of the vessel at a depth of 187ft, where ‘through the portholes they saw corpses’.

In June, Mr Lynch won a 13-year legal fight and was cleared by a San Francisco court of conducting a massive fraud relating to a £8.64 billion sale of his firm, Autonomy, to US company Hewlett-Packard in 2011.

If found guilty, it could have landed him 25 years in a US jail.

To mark his freedom, Mr Lynch had invited guests from legal firm Clifford Chance as well as his own company Invoke Capital to celebrate on the yacht trip.

The father of Ayla Ronald, who was part of Mr Lynch’s legal team, confirmed that the sailing trip was supposed to be a celebration of the tycoon’s acquittal.

But yacht sank as a fierce storm battered the area overnight on Sunday.

Mr Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, 57, who was among the rescued recalls the boat suddenly ’tilted’ at around 4am, before glass began shattering.

The superyacht had been lit up and illuminating the night sky when a waterspout – a whirling column of air and water mist – unfolded nearby.

Witnesses have described the moment the yacht went down as very sudden, claiming it was as if it just ‘disappeared’.

‘The boat was all lit up. Around 4.30am, it was no longer there,’ said one.

‘A normal joyous vacation day at sea turned into tragedy’.

The Italian Coastguard said in a statement that a nearby boat offered assistance to people before emergency services arrived.

The Sir Robert BP, a Dutch sailing ship which had been anchored by the Bayesian, is believed to have rescued the 15 survivors.

Karsten Borner, the captain of the boat, described how his vessel was battered by strong gusts, with his team working to stabilise it and manoeuvre it to avoid hitting the Bayesian nearby.

Two more passengers on board the Bayesian who are still missing are the chairman of Morgan Stanley International, Jonathan Bloomer and his wife.

Mr Bloomer is a close friend of Mr Lynch and was confirmed missing by Italian Authorities alongside his wife.

According to his Linkedin profile, Mr Bloomer is the chairman of insurance provider Hiscox and was formerly the chief executive of Prudential before being ousted in a boardroom coup in 2005.

The other two yet to be found are Mr Lynch’s attorney Christopher Morvillo and his wife Nada.

Attorney Gary Lincenberg said Morvillo and his wife ‘are presumed to be passed away’ after the yacht went down near Sicily.

Tragically, the body of a man was found floating alongside the sunken vessel on Monday.

Authorities identified the man as Canadian Ricardo Thomas, who was working as the boat’s chef and was the only crew member unaccounted for.

His body was recovered, and police divers spent the day trying to reach the hull of the ship, which was resting at a depth of 163 feet off Porticello where it had been anchored, rescue authorities said.

British mother Charlotte Golunski and her one-year-old baby called Sofia were reported to be among those rescued by a nearby sailboat, with Dr Cipolla confirming that they were treated at the Di Cristina hospital.

‘By the way, I know that there were some young people on board, some very young people. They are very tired and they continually thank us for the care and attention we are giving them and the little girl. They are very tired but they are very sweet people,’ Dr Cipolla said.

Ms Golunski, 36, has described how she momentarily lost her daughter in the ‘fury of the waves’, before finding her and managing to get them both to safety.

‘I held her afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning,’ Ms Golunski said.

‘It was all dark. In the water I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I screamed for help but all I could hear around me was the screams of others.’

The mother, who is in hospital with her baby where she received treatment for a minor shoulder injury, abrasions and a ‘wound that needed stitching’, according to Dr Cipolla, described the ordeal as ‘terrible’, detailing how ‘in a few minutes the boat was hit by a very strong wind and sank shortly after.’

Ms Golunski and her little girl were taken to be assessed at the Children’s Hospital in Palermo. The baby is said to be doing fine and is unharmed, with tests only carried out as a precaution.

Five other people were taken to the Bagheria territorial emergency point. Others reportedly required no hospital treatment, and spoke to authorities about what happened as the incident is being investigated.