Mike Lynch Yacht Update: Brother of missing banker says ‘air pocket’ may offer slight chance of survival

It was supposed to be a summer celebration.

British tech tycoon Mike Lynch has gathered his trusted lawyers who have always stood by him to ensure he emerges unscathed from a gruelling 13-year legal battle. Twelve guests from the UK, US, Canada, New Zealand and Ireland flew into Porticello, a picturesque Italian port town near Palermo, to celebrate the end of a fraud trial that has consumed most of their lives.

But hopes of a successful rescue are fading after the boat capsized in bad weather in the early hours of Monday morning, leaving one person dead and six others, including Lynch, missing.

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A doctor who treated the 15 survivors of the Baysian superyacht’s sinking shortly afterward said the injured had spoken of “darkness” as the boat capsized.

Dr Fabio Genco described scenes of rescued passengers and crew searching for loved ones as “apocalyptic scenes”, and said his main concern was treating babies who had ingested salt water.

“The word that was repeated throughout the wreck by his mother and all the injured was ‘darkness,'” he said.

“They said it took about five minutes, maybe three to five minutes, from the time the ship was lifted by the ocean waves until it sank.”

The brother of the Morgan Stanley chairman missing from a superyacht that sank off the coast of Sicily says he hopes an air pocket may have kept the yacht alive.

Jonathan’s twin brother, Jeremy Bloomer, told the BBC he was praying.

“It’s a slow process and it takes time, so there might be air pockets, but we don’t know. It’s still a wait-and-see situation and we can only hope for the best,” he said.

The search for British billionaire Mike Lynch and his daughter has entered a critical phase after a tornado sunk his yacht off the coast of Palermo, the capital of Sicily.

The Independent explains everything we know so far:

The wife of British billionaire Mike Lynch took refuge with other survivors in a hotel just a six-minute drive from Porticello port, close to where the ship sank.

Hotel guests told the Mirror that the mother is distraught as she awaits updates on whether her husband and 18-year-old daughter Hannah are alive.

Angela Bacalez escaped to safety along with 15 other passengers after a ferocious storm truck engulfed her sailboat, the Baysian, in a tower of waterspouts just after 4 a.m. Monday.

According to Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper, the 57-year-old woman said she was woken up early that morning by the boat suddenly “listing” and at first thought everything was fine, but then she noticed broken glass raining down on her body.

She then ran from the cabin, cutting her feet on broken glass scattered on the deck, and made it to safety within minutes as the ship disappeared beneath the waves.

Mike Lynch’s friends described him as “very easy to talk to” with a “great sense of humor.”

Richard Smith, who lives near Mr Lynch in the Suffolk village of Pettisley, told the BBC: “He was very friendly and easy to talk to, he had a great sense of humour. You’d think he’d be difficult to talk to because he was rich but in fact he was very easy to talk to.”

The race to rescue survivors from the sunken Bayesian superyacht is entering a crucial stage after divers successfully broke through a glass window and entered the vessel.

Italian authorities have released drone footage of a “lengthy and complicated” operation to try to enter the wreck of the Basian superyacht.

As their friends had hoped, the six remaining missing passengers found an air hole in the ship and survived for more than 50 hours, but Vincenzo Zagarola of the Italian coast guard said they were presumed dead.

Asked about the possibility that they were still alive, he said: “You can never say never, but the rational answer is no.”

“We believe they are still on board the vessel. That is our firm belief.”

“Obviously, we can’t rule out the possibility that they weren’t in the boat, but we know that the boat sank quickly.

“We believe the six missing people may not have had time to leave the boat.”

“We’re hoping for a miracle,” David Tabizel, who co-founded software company Autonomy with Mike Lynch in 1996, told Sky News.

The Italian coast guard has not ruled out the possibility that the missing, including tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, may still be alive, but experts speculate an air bubble may have formed when the yacht sank.

Among those missing are Morgan Stanley International Bank Chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy Bloomer, and Clifford Chance Bank attorney Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo.

Jonathan Bloomer’s twin brother, Jeremy Bloomer, told the BBC: “It’s a slow process and it’s going to take time, so there might be air pockets, we don’t know. It’s still a wait and see process, but we’re hopeful it will work out.”

Desperate rescue efforts continued through the night, with divers trying to access the £14 million ship, which appears to be largely intact on the seabed.