By Guglielmo Mangiapane and Giselda Vagnoni
PORTICELLO, Italy (Reuters) -Italian divers retrieved the physique of British tech magnate Mike Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, who was the final individual nonetheless unaccounted for after the household’s luxurious yacht sank this week off Sicily.
Seven individuals, together with Lynch himself, died when the 56-metre-long (184-foot) boat, the Bayesian, capsized throughout a fierce, pre-dawn storm on Monday off Porticello, close to Palermo.
Fifteen individuals survived, together with Lynch’s spouse, whose firm owned the Bayesian, and the yacht’s captain.
Because the rescue operation got here to an finish, consideration switched to the official investigation into the catastrophe.
The general public prosecutor’s workplace of Termini Imerese, headed by Ambrogio Cartosio, is wanting into potential expenses of negligent shipwreck and a number of murder, judicial sources informed Reuters.
The captain James Cutfield and the opposite survivors have been questioned by the coast guard on behalf of prosecutors. None of them have commented publicly on how the ship went down.
To date, no one has been positioned beneath formal investigation.
Cartosio is because of maintain a information convention on Saturday.
Hannah Lynch’s physique was found on Friday by divers who’ve been scouring the submerged vessel for the previous 5 days. The 5 different useless passengers have been recovered on Wednesday and Thursday, whereas the physique of the one crew member who died, onboard chef Recaldo Thomas, was discovered on Monday.
“The Lynch household is devastated, in shock and is being comforted and supported by household and associates,” a spokesperson for the household mentioned on Friday, of their first public remark because the yacht sank.
“Their ideas are with everybody affected by the tragedy. They want to sincerely thank the Italian coastguard, emergency companies and all those that helped within the rescue,” the assertion mentioned.
The hearth brigade mentioned their crew of greater than 40 specialists had carried out 123 dives to the wreck of the Bayesian, which is mendacity apparently intact on its facet at a depth of fifty metres (164 toes).
The sinking has puzzled naval marine specialists who say a ship just like the Bayesian, constructed by Italian high-end yacht producer Perini, ought to have withstood the storm and in any case shouldn’t have sunk as shortly because it did.
COMPLEX SALVAGE OPERATION
Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, which owns Perini, informed Reuters the shipwreck was the results of a string of “indescribable, unreasonable errors” made by the crew, and dominated out any design or building failings.
Pulling the Bayesian out of the ocean could assist investigators decide what occurred, however the operation is prone to be complicated and expensive.
Nick Sloane, a South African engineer who led the operation to salvage the Costa Concordia cruise liner that sank in 2012, mentioned in Italian media interviews on Friday that the operation would price as much as 15 million euros ($16.7 million).
He informed each day La Repubblica that salvaging the yacht would take six to eight weeks, together with preparation work, and must be accomplished by mid-October, with out specifying the explanations for the timing.
Bringing the yacht to the floor should be completed “very, very slowly”, and may take a few days, he mentioned.
Lynch, 59, was one of many UK’s best-known tech entrepreneurs and had invited associates to hitch him on the yacht to have a good time his acquittal in June in a U.S. fraud trial.
Amongst those that additionally died within the wreck have been Lynch’s lawyer Chris Morvillo and Jonathan Bloomer, a Morgan Stanley banker who had appeared as a personality witness within the case on his behalf.
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