- Divers are scouring the wreck of the 184ft vessel for any sign of Hannah Lynch
The agonising search for Mike Lynch’s daughter continued last night as rescuers feared the missing teenager could still be trapped within the sunken Bayesian superyacht.
Divers are scouring the wreck of the 184ft vessel for any sign of 18-year-old Hannah Lynch, who is the last of six passengers still missing from the sinking off the coast of Sicily on Monday.
The search for Hannah, a bright student who recently secured a place to read English at Oxford, is said to have been hindered by debris blocking accessibility to all areas of the yacht.
Luca Cari, a spokesman for the fire rescue service, told Sky News: ‘It’s very difficult to move inside the wreckage. Moving just one metre can take up to 24 hours.’
The national head of the fire brigade Carlo Dall’Oppio told the Mail operations are proceeding slowly because they must protect the safety of the divers.
Fire service dive team returns to port on the fourth day of the search and recovery operation after the luxury yacht Bayesian sank in a storm on Monday whilst moored around half a mile off the coast of Porticello, Sicily
Pictured: Bayesian yacht that sank on Monday. The bodies of five of those missing were found on Wednesday, with four recovered, but the whereabouts of the missing sixth person remains unknown
The body of a fifth missing person has been recovered this morning, following the recovery of four others on Wednesday
‘We have not yet inspected the entire boat, so we think it is possible that the body is still inside. These operations are proceeding slowly, because we must first preserve the health of our operators. It is a difficult job – there are about 40 divers.’
It comes as Italian media reported that the victims were found on the opposite side of the yacht from their cabins, suggesting they may have been trying to escape the incoming water.
‘We found them all on that side . . . we had maps with the layout of the cabins and the positions of the guests, and that’s not where we recovered them,’ a source said.
A decision on whether to raise the sunken yacht from the seabed is ‘not on the agenda’, but will be in the future, Vincenzo Zagarola from the Italian Coastguard has said.
Dr Lynch’s was the fifth body to be found in the lower deck of the ill-fated yacht, which lies on the seabed at a depth of 164ft, half a mile from the port in Porticello.
Tributes have been pouring in for the man once dubbed the British Bill Gates, and for the other victims of the tragedy.
David Tabizel, Dr Lynch’s co-founder at Autonomy, said: ‘The world has lost a genius. His family have lost a giant of a man. He was exhausting, exhilarating and incisive… the father of modern AI.’
Industry group TechUK called him ‘a hugely significant and pioneering figure’ in the UK technology sector.
British technology tycoon Mike Lynch who died after the luxury yacht, Bayesian sank in bad weather off the coast of Sicily
Morgan Stanley chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judith, also died in the superyacht disaster
Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo were also aboard the ship
The body of chef Recaldo Thomas (pictured) was discovered on the day of the sinking
The children of Jonathan and Judy Bloomer said the loss of their parents was ‘an unimaginable grief to shoulder’.
And the chairman of children’s charity the NSPCC paid tribute to Mr Bloomer, Morgan Stanley International bank chairman and the former honorary treasurer of the charity. Neil Berkett said: ‘We remember Jonathan as a very kind individual with a great sense of humour.’
The family of Chris and Neda Morvillo, who had two daughters, released a statement speaking of the ‘complete devastation’ felt by their ‘tremendous loss’.
In a separate incident, Dr Lynch’s co-defendant in his fraud trial, Stephen Chamberlain, died after being hit by a car while running in Cambridgeshire on Saturday.