dpa
Sicily
Police divers searching for British technology tycoon Mike Lynch and five others who were on a luxury yacht which sank in a tornado were trying to access the ship’s cabins on Tuesday.
Italy’s fire brigade said it is developing a plan to enter the wreckage of Bayesian, which is resting on the seabed off the coast of Sicily at a depth of 50 metres. It described the operation as “complex,” with divers limited to 12-minute underwater shifts.
Rescue crews said they assume the six missing tourists will be found in the cabins, which they were unable to enter on Monday due to debris.
Bayesian was moored around 0.8km off the coast of Porticello when it sank at about 5am (0300 GMT) on Monday as the area was hit by a storm.
Civil protection officials believe the yacht was battered by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout.
Local fisherman Giuseppe Cefalu told the PA news agency through a translator that he saw a “tornado” close to the port of Porticello, and he and his brother Fabio saw a flare in the sky at around 5am.
The pair aided efforts to locate people in the water after the yacht sank, but Cefalu said he only saw cushions and a buoy. He said weather conditions on the morning of the sinking were “fierce,” with “very strong” wind and rain.
Fifteen of the 22 passengers and crew onboard - including Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares - were rescued after escaping onto a lifeboat. One body, reportedly belonging to the ship’s chef, was recovered at the scene.
Lynch, who founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, was cleared in June of conducting a massive fraud relating to an $11bn sale to US company Hewlett Packard.
The boat trip appears to have been a celebration of his acquittal. The missing tourists are: Lynch; his daughter, Hannah Lynch; Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer; his wife, Judy Bloomer; Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo; and his wife Neda Morvillo.
