Those searching for the six people who remain missing after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of Sicily are hoping “for a miracle” amid the rescue efforts.
The Bayesian, a 56-meter (183-ft) vessel, capsized early on Monday, Aug. 19, while carrying 22 people and moored about a half mile from the coast of Porticello, according to a statement from the Italian coast guard previously obtained.
The search now continues for the missing people on board, but a rescue operations source said it’s “unlikely” anyone will be found today (Aug. 21), “because this yacht is designed differently from traditional ones in that the main cabins are at the stern.”
“There’s very much hope for a miracle; everyone expects them to be trapped inside, but the hope is for there to be some form of air pocket,” the source says.
A photo of the ‘Bayesian’ superyacht.
PERINI NAVI PRESS OFFICE/HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
“There will be searching around the vessel, thinking that, like the cook, someone could be found near the vessel, but that’s highly unlikely as well, because after a few days they would rise and float,” the rescue operation source adds.
According to Italian media outlets, a man’s body was found after the sinking and later identified as the yacht’s chef, per Reuters.
“It’s extremely difficult because while the boat is still intact, the furniture and debris are all over the place, blocking all passages and entrances. So they have to go through the first floor of the galley and go down the stairs at the other end, then travel through the ground floor of the yacht to the other side in order to get to the cabins,” the source said.
Another rescue operations source said that divers’ inspection of the wreckage site revealed that the hull of the superyacht is “intact and the mainmast has no damage, at least for the first 50 meters,” of the 72-meter pole.
“To rule out structural failures of the hull, marine investigators will have to examine the side resting on the sandy seabed from the inside, but already the hypothesis is emerging that an enormous amount of water entered in a very short time, as this would be the only thing that could [be] causing the hull to rear up which, as several survivors told the investigators, [making] the ship sink in literally 60 seconds,” the source added.
The six missing passengers include British technology entrepreneur Mike Lynch and New York City-based lawyer Christopher Morvillo, who helped Lynch get acquitted in his recent fraud case.
Lynch went to trial, and won, after he was accused of financial fraud in connection to the sale of Autonomy — a business software company Lynch founded — to Hewlett-Packard in 2011, and a source previously said the group had traveled to the Aeolian Islands to celebrate the win.
Morvillo’s wife Neda, Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, along with Lynch’s daughter Hannah are also among the missing. Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares was one of the 15 passengers rescued, the Italian coast guard and local sources said. Eight of the rescued were taken to local hospitals.
Also among the rescued was Charlotte Golunski, who said she used “all my strength” to save her 1-year-old daughter Sophie after a wave briefly took her out to sea, per Italian newspaper la Repubblica.
