The body of Mike Lynch’s missing daughter Hannah has been recovered from the wreck of the Bayesian superyacht, as Italian authorities begin a manslaughter investigation into the sinking.
The 18-year-old student was the sixth and final missing person after the £30million vessel sank on Monday during a vicious storm off the coast off Sicily. Seven people are now confirmed dead, including the ship’s chef, Recaldo Thomas.
The Bayesian, which was owned by Dr Lynch, sank during a ‘victory trip’ to celebrate his acquittal on fraud charges in the US.
Local authorities are now ‘investigating shipwreck and multiple counts of culpable homicide’ – similar to the charge of manslaughter in the UK – according to Italian media.
The investigation is being led by Ambrogio Cartosio, head of the prosecutor’s office in the nearby town of Termini Imerese, with more details expected to be revealed at a press conference tomorrow morning.
Causing a shipwreck is a separate offence under the Italian penal code and those found guilty of provoking or causing a shipwreck could face up to 12 years in prison.
Search teams at the site of the Bayesian sinking this morning as they prepare to continue looking for the final missing person, Hannah Lynch
The Bayesian yacht sank on August 19 off the coast of Sicily amid severe stormy weather
Banking boss Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy died in the disaster (left). Tech boss Mike Lynch (right), who had just been cleared of fraud charges in the US, also died
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 body of the boat’s chef was found shortly after it sank – five other bodies have since been discovered (pictured: rescue workers stage a dry run of equipment)
Investigators have been examining videos and photographs taken on the night of the storm showing the last minutes of the ship, as well as CCTV footage of the port.
Italian news website Palermo Today said coastguard officials have visited all of the homes and public places with surveillance cameras pointed out to sea in the area.
The Prosecutor’s Office are also reviewing the actions and decisions made by the Bayesian’s Captain James Cutfield, 51, and Matthew Griffith, 22, who is understood to be the first officer, according to Palermo Today.
It has been reported that Mr Cutfield was quizzed ‘at length’ for at least two hours by the prosecution team.
Tributes have been pouring in for the victims of the tragedy, including her father Dr Lynch, once dubbed the British Bill Gates, after his body was recovered from one of the vessel’s cabins early yesterday.
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.
The tragic discovery came after Italian authorities indicated they believed they had found the father and daughter when the first of four bodies were pulled from the wreck.
But yesterday morning, they said Hannah was, in fact, still missing and the first bodies brought ashore were those of British businessman Jonathan Bloomer, 70, his wife Judy, 71, and Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo, 59, and his wife Neda, 57.
Dr Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, who was among 15 people rescued in ‘apocalyptic’ scenes from the sinking, had been anxiously waiting for news of her husband and daughter.
The national head of the fire brigade Carlo Dall’Oppio told the Mail that operations are proceeding slowly because they must protect the safety of the divers because of the depth of the wreck.
‘The sixth body has not yet been located, 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 to their cabins which suggested they may have been trying to escape the incoming water by reaching the higher ground.
The Bayesian’s captain, James Cutfield (pictured) has been questioned by officials carrying out an investigation into the tragedy
A coastguard boat sits on the water close to the sinking site off the coast of Sicily this morning
Italian fire service divers speak on a rescue boat this morning as they prepare to resume searches for Hannah
The superyacht was said to have gone down by the bow and settled on its starboard on a tilt.
‘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.
Emergency workers said they would need a ‘crystal ball’ to be able to predict when the sixth body would be recovered.
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.’ 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.
He also said that the missing woman is believed to be still inside the boat.
As the search continued last night tributes continued to be paid to for those who have been confirmed dead.
The Bloomer’s now orphaned children released a heartbreaking statement in which they said the loss of their parents was an ‘an unimaginable grief to shoulder’.
‘Our parents were incredible people and an inspiration to many, but first and foremost they were focused on and loved their family and spending time with their new grandchildren.
‘Together for five decades, our only comfort is that they are still together now,’ they said.
The chairman of children’s charity the NSPCC described Mr Bloomer, the former honorary treasurer of the organisation, as ‘a very kind individual’,
Speaking about the Morgan Stanley International bank chairman and his wife, Neil Berkett said: ‘We remember Jonathan from his time with us as a very kind individual with a great sense of humour and Judy as formidable and passionate.’
Tributes to Dr Lynch were also paid by senior industry figures who applauded his contribution to the world of tech.
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 & incisive… Britain’s Bill Gates? Not really. Britain’s Steve Jobs. The father of modern AI.’
Industry group TechUK also paid tribute calling him ‘a hugely significant and pioneering figure’ in the UK technology sector.
Lord Browne of Madingley described him as ‘the person who catalysed a breed of deep tech entrepreneurs in the UK’.
The chairman of BeyondNetZero said: ‘His ideas and his personal vision were a powerful contribution to science and technology in both Britain and globally.’ Dr Lynch’s close friend Brent Hoberman, the former chief executive of lastminute.com, described the disaster as a ‘Shakespearean sort of tragedy’.
He said: ‘We were all hoping for a miracle, we knew it was unlikely but you still hold out hope.’ ‘It’s just so unbelievably tragic for him to go through what he went through over the last 12 years, defending his name and not really living a full life, to now for his death to be confirmed is obviously incredibly sad.’
The family of the Morvillos, who have two daughters now orphaned, released a statement speaking of the ‘complete devastation’ felt by the their ‘tremendous loss’.
The bodies were informally identified when they were brought to shore and are expected to be formally identified, as under Italian law, by relatives after post-mortem examinations next week.
Their deaths bring the death toll to six after yacht’s Canadian chef Recaldo Thomas was found shortly after the ship went down in a storm at 5am.
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.
Dr Lynch, who founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, was cleared in June of carrying out a massive fraud relating to its 11 billion dollar (£8.64 billion) sale to US company Hewlett Packard.
Mr Zagarola previously said a decision on whether to raise the sunken yacht from the seabed is ‘not on the agenda’, but will be in the future.
Giovanni Costantino, chief executive of the firm that built the yacht, said it was ‘absurd’ that passengers on the yacht were in their cabins.
He told the Times: ‘Why were (they) in their cabins?
‘Local fishermen saw the storm was coming, why did no-one on board the Bayesian realise?
‘From 3.50am, the captain had four minutes to get the passengers out of their cabins.’
He continued: ‘They should have jettisoned the anchor, started the engine, pointed the bows to the wind and put the keel down.
‘If they had done that, no-one on board would have been afraid, they would have been back to bed in an hour and ready to push on with their voyage.’
A helicopter, remotely controlled underwater vehicles, naval units and cave divers have been used in the search.
The Bayesian was moored around half a mile off the coast of Porticello when it sank as the area was hit by a storm.
Its wreckage is resting on the seabed off the coast at a depth of 50 metres (164ft).