Body Of British Tech Magnate Recovered From Wreckage Of Superyacht, Coast Guard Says

PORTICELLO, Sicily (AP) — The Italian coast guard said Thursday the body of British tech magnate Mike Lynch is among those recovered off the coast of Sicily from the wreckage of a superyacht whose builders had called unsinkable.

One woman remains missing. She has not been identified, but Hannah Lynch, Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, is reportedly unaccounted for. The family had been celebrating his recent acquittal on fraud charges with the people who defended him at trial in the United States.

Five others were recovered by rescue crews following Monday’s tragedy.

The Bayesian, a 56-meter (184-foot) British-flagged yacht, went down in a storm early Monday as it was moored about a kilometer (half a mile) offshore. Civil protection officials said they believe the ship was struck by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout, and sank quickly.

Termini Imerese Public Prosecutor’s Office investigators were collecting evidence for a criminal investigation, which they opened immediately after the tragedy despite no formal suspects having been publicly identified.

The chief executive of The Italian Sea Group, which owns the Bayesian’s manufacturer, said superyachts like these are “the safest in the most absolute sense.”

“First of all, because they have very little surface compared to a yacht facing into the wind,” CEO Giovanni Costantino told Sky News on Wednesday. “Second, with the structure, the drift keel, they become unsinkable bodies.”

Investigators are now looking at why the Bayesian, built in 2008 by Italian shipyard Perini Navi, sank while a nearby sailboat remained largely unscathed. Fifteen of the 22 people aboard survived by escaping in a lifeboat, including a mother who reported holding her 1-year-old baby over