British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer are among those feared dead aboard the sunken wreckage of a luxury yacht off the coast of Sicily.
Vincenzo Zagarola, a spokesperson for the Italian coast guard, said searches will continue, “but, at this point, it would be reasonable to think that we are more likely to find the missing people inside the boat.”
Zagarola added that the search for the six missing people is receiving help from military ships and helicopters. In a separate interview with the PA news agency, when asked if the passengers would be found alive, he said “reasonably the answer should be not.”
Six guests and nine crew were rescued from the Bayesian yacht, which sank after a tornado struck the vessel near Porticello, Sicily on Monday. Lynch and his family were celebrating his recent acquittal from fraud charges with a small group of advisers when the violent storm hit.
The head of the civil protection agency in Sicily, Salvo Cocina, said in a message to Bloomberg earlier on Tuesday that the missing passengers are Bloomer and his wife Judy, Clifford Chance partner Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda, as well as Lynch and his daughter Hannah.
Lynch, 59, had been seeking to restore his reputation as one of Europe’s most successful entrepreneurs. For years, he’d argued that he had been scapegoated over the $11 billion acquisition of his software company, Autonomy Corp., by Hewlett Packard Co. in 2011. A year later, HP wrote down $8.8 billion of the purchase price and publicly accused Lynch of fraud.
Firefighters said gaining access to the yacht, which is 48 meters (157 feet) below the surface, was “complex.” A press release from the coast guard added divers are “evaluating the feasibility of safely entering the wreck, an operation which has become complicated from the depth and position of the hull.”
The searches are now being conducted with the help of a remotely controlled underwater vehicle, capable of operating on the seabed for over two hours, according to a statement from the coast guard.
Italian authorities have already begun a probe into the sinking. The UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch, which investigates marine accidents involving British vessels worldwide, has sent four inspectors to Sicily to conduct a preliminary assessment, according to a spokesperson for the Department for Transport. They will speak to the local authorities and emergency service crews to determine whether they need to launch an investigation.
An investigation would involve speaking to crew, passengers and other witnesses and collecting physical and digital evidence, for example examining logbooks, crew qualifications and any voyage recorder data.
The UK ambassador had also flown to Palermo Monday to meet with officials and the families of the victims, the UK embassy said.
“The search will go on as long as necessary,” Zagarola added. “For sure the whole hull will need to be inspected meter by meter.”
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