Mike Lynch Yacht Sinking Update: Captain Baysian ‘under investigation’ for manslaughter and shipwreck

The Bayesian sent out its final signal via its Automatic Identification System (AIS) just after 4am local time before sinking, according to the MarineTraffic website.

Chief prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio said red flare lights were fired into the air more than 30 minutes later to alert rescue teams to the emergency.

Palermo fire chief Girolamo Bentivoglio Fiandra said the ship sank stern first and was lying on its starboard side in about 50 meters (164 feet) of water.

Hannah Lynch had just finished her A-Levels and secured a place to study English at Oxford University.

Her former English teacher, John Mitropoulos-Monk, said she had achieved 100% in her English literature GCSE and was “one of the best English students in the country”.

Paying tribute to her on Friday, family friend Patrick Jacob said: “Hannah was charming, highly intelligent and had an insatiable thirst for life and knowledge. She was also warm, loving and deeply caring – remarkable for someone her age.”

“I’m 50 years older than her and I’ve never met anyone like Hannah in my life. We’ve lost one of our brightest stars who had such a promising future. Losing her is unbearable.”

After a decade-long legal battle that led to his extradition to the United States to face an $11 billion fraud case, Mike Lynch celebrated by inviting close friends, colleagues and those who supported him in his legal team aboard the boat as a sign of gratitude.

But a week of sunshine along the Italian coast quickly turned to terror when a boat capsized just before dawn, leaving those on board with just minutes to reach safety.

My colleagues Rachel Hagan and Javed Ahmed report:

Investigators are reportedly focusing on how a storm off the coast of Sicily last Monday sunk the 56-metre luxury yacht “Basian”, considered “unsinkable” by its manufacturer, Italian shipyard Perini Navi, while a nearby sailing vessel remained largely intact.

Prosecutors said the event was “extremely rapid” and may have been a “downburst” – a localized, powerful wind that falls from a thunderstorm and spreads quickly when it hits the ground.

Chief prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio confirmed on Saturday that an investigation had been opened into the sinking of the superyacht, but said no suspects had been identified.

He said his team would look at all possible sources of liability, including the captain, crew, supervisors and the yacht’s manufacturer.

Italian authorities said five bodies were found in the same cabin on the Bayesian, but Hannah Lynch’s body was found alone in a separate cabin.

The five people found by rescue divers appeared to have huddled in the superyacht’s first cabin on the left side to attempt an escape, The Telegraph reported, while an 18-year-old woman was found alone in the third cabin on the left side.

“The yacht listed to the right and the bodies apparently went to the other side and tried to take refuge in cabins. We found five bodies in the left cabin and one more body in a third cabin further to the left. The bodies were in the higher part of the wreck,” senior fire department officer Girolamo Bentivoglio Fiandra said on Saturday.

Prosecutors described the sinking of the Bayesian superyacht as “extremely rapid” and suggested a “downburst” may have been the cause.

A downburst is a localized, powerful wind that comes down from a thunderstorm and spreads rapidly when it hits the ground.

Family friends of Mike and Hannah Lynch said father and daughter were part of a “close-knit, vibrant and loving family”, with teenager Mike remembered as a “diamond in a sea of ​​stars” and the tech mogul as a brilliant storyteller.

The two were among seven people who died when the luxury superyacht Basian sank off the coast of Sicily in the early hours of Monday morning.

Lynch was the founder of software giant Autonomy and was released from prison in June after being charged with large-scale fraud in connection with the company’s $11 billion (£8.64 billion) sale to Hewlett-Packard.

The court-appointed armed guard tasked with keeping an eye on fraud-charged Mike Lynch to make sure he doesn’t flee paid tribute to the tech tycoon, saying his security team “has become more like family than we are tinkerers.”

Lolo Igno also said he had the “memories of a beautiful soul” of Ms Lynch’s daughter Hannah, 18, who died when the luxury superyacht Basian sank off the coast of Sicily in the early hours of Monday morning.

Lynch founded software giant Autonomy in 1996 and was cleared of massive fraud charges in connection with its sale to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion (£8.64 billion) in June at a federal court in San Francisco.

The captain of the Baysian claims he did not see the storm that sank the Baysian last week.

“We weren’t expecting anything like this,” James Catfield, 51, said Tuesday about the storm.

A judicial official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed earlier reports in Italian media to Reuters on Monday that a New Zealander was under investigation by Italian prosecutors after his superyacht capsized in a tornado off the coast of Sicily last Monday.