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Video shows moments before superyacht went down in storm off Sicily

Newly released video captures a luxury superyacht being battered by a violent storm before it suddenly sank off Sicily with 22 people aboard Monday.

The grainy images obtained by NBC News and other outlets were recorded on closed-circuit television not far from where the Bayesian was anchored, about a half-mile from the port of Porticello, on Sicily’s northern coast .

The yacht's 250-foot mast, illuminated with lights and lashed by the storm, appears to bend to one side before it finally disappears and is replaced by darkness.

The speed with which a yacht built to handle the roughest seas capsized stunned maritime experts.  

“I can’t remember the last time I read about a vessel going down quickly like that, you know, completely capsizing and going down that quickly, a vessel of that nature, a yacht of that size,” said Stephen Richter of SAR Marine Consulting.

British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and five of the 22 other people who were aboard the 184-foot vessel remain unaccounted for and are believed to be trapped in the Bayesian’s hull, nearly 170 feet underwater.

Officials confirmed Monday that at least one person, the ship’s cook, had died.  

Superyachts like the Bayesian, which had been available for charters at a rate of $215,000 a week, are designed to stay afloat even as they are taking on water to give the people aboard a chance to escape, Richter said. 

“Boats of this size, they’re taking passengers on an excursion or a holiday,” Richter said. “They are not going to put them in situations where it may be dangerous or it may be uncomfortable, so this storm that popped up was obviously an anomaly. These vessels that carry passengers, they’re typically very well-maintained, very well-appointed.”

Built by Italian shipbuilder Perini Navi in 2008, the U.K.-registered Bayesian could carry 12 guests and a crew of up to 10, according to online specialist yacht sites. Its nearly 250-foot mast is the tallest aluminum sailing mast in the world, according to CharterWorld Luxury Yacht Charters. 

On Tuesday, Italian rescue workers resumed the search for Lynch and the five other passengers still missing: Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah; Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife; and Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife.

“The fear is that the bodies got trapped inside the vessel,” Salvatore Cocina, the head of civil protection in Sicily, told Reuters .

The Bayesian is owned by a firm linked to Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, who was one of the 15 people rescued Monday after it capsized.

“It’s extremely rare for a boat of this size to sink,” Richter said.

What’s not rare is the kind of storm that sank it , said Simon Boxall, senior lecturer in oceanography at Britain’s University of Southampton.

“People assume the Mediterranean is this rather calm and passive place that never gets storms and always blue skies,” Boxall said. “In fact, you get some quite horrendous storms that are not uncommon at this time of year.”

The president of Italy’s meteorological society has said Monday’s violent storm may have involved a waterspout, essentially a tornado over water, or a downburst, which occurs more frequently but doesn’t involve the rotation of the air.

Luca Mercalli, president of the Italian Meteorology Society, also said recent temperatures may have been a factor. 

“The sea surface temperature around Sicily was around 30 degrees Celsius [86 Fahrenheit], which is almost 3 degrees more than normal,” Mercalli told Reuters. “This creates an enormous source of energy that contributes to these storms.”

The Mediterranean sailing vacation was designed to be a celebration for Lynch, who two months ago was acquitted by a San Francisco jury of fraud charges stemming from the 2011 sale of his software company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion.

Prosecutors alleged that Lynch, dubbed “Britain’s Bill Gates,” and Autonomy’s vice president for finance, Stephen Chamberlain, had padded the firm’s finances ahead of the sale. Lynch’s lawyers argued that HP was so eager to acquire Autonomy that it failed to adequately check the books .

Lynch had taken Morvill, who was one of his defense attorneys, on the luxury trip. 

Chamberlain was not on the Bayesian.

In what appears to be a tragic coincidence, a car struck and killed Chamberlain on Saturday as he was jogging in a village about 68 miles north of London, local police said.

“Steve fought successfully to clear his good name at trial earlier this year, and his good name now lives on through his wonderful family,” Chamberlain’s lawyer, Gary Lincenberg, said in a statement .

Henry Austin reported from London and Corky Siemaszko from New York City.

Henry Austin is a senior editor for NBC News Digital based in London.

Corky Siemaszko is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital.

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The 16 minutes that plunged the Bayesian yacht into a deadly spiral

Until midnight last Sunday, Matteo Cannia was sitting out on a bench overlooking the sea in Porticello. It was too hot to sleep.

The 78-year-old, a fisherman since the age of 10, saw the first flashes of lightning. "I heard the thunder and the wind and decided to go home," he told me.

"As the storm grew, everyone woke. Water was coming into my friend’s house."

At about 04:15 local time, Fabio Cefalù – a fisherman who had been due to go out that wild Monday morning but, like others, decided against it – suddenly saw a flare go up.

He changed his mind and went out to sea to find out what was going on – and discovered only cushions and floating planks of wood.

A luxury super yacht called the Bayesian, moored only a few hundred metres away, had already sunk.

It all happened in a 16-minute window of disaster , chaos and torment, which catapulted a sleepy Sicilian fishing port to the centre of world news.

All but seven of the 22 people on board the Bayesian - 12 passengers and 10 crew - had scrambled into a life raft as the yacht began to capsize. The others never made it out.

Charlotte Golunski, a British woman, was thrown into the water with her one-year-old daughter, Sophie. She told of clutching her baby in the air with all her strength to keep her from drowning. "It was all black around me," she said, "and the only thing I could hear were the screams of others."

She, her baby, and her husband James were among those rescued by a nearby sailing boat captain. Trapped inside the sinking Bayesian was her colleague Mike Lynch – one of the UK’s top tech entrepreneurs, dubbed “Britain’s Bill Gates”.

Luxury turned to terror

Mr Lynch had brought together family, friends and colleagues for an idyllic holiday on his luxury boat: a sumptuous 56-metre (184ft) sailing yacht that won design awards and had the world’s tallest aluminium mast.

In June, he was acquitted after a lengthy trial in the US on charges that he had fraudulently inflated the value of his company, Autonomy, before selling it to Hewlett Packard in 2011. The trip was planned as a celebration of freedom to mark his rehabilitation in public opinion.

Three days after the yacht went down, his body was retrieved by divers from the wreckage.

A day later, the body of his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, who was due to begin studying at the University of Oxford next month, was recovered.

Among the others who died were the president of the investment bank Morgan Stanley, Jonathan Bloomer, and his wife Judy; Mr Lynch’s lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda; and the yacht’s chef, Recaldo Thomas. Mr Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, survived.

The family has released a statement talking of their “unspeakable grief”, adding they are “devastated and in shock”.

How the super yacht sank so quickly while other smaller vessels nearby survived the storm undamaged has dumbfounded experts.

In a press conference this weekend – the first public statement by officials since the disaster – local prosecutors said they had begun an investigation into potential crimes of manslaughter and negligent shipwreck.

The region’s state prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio told reporters that while the probe was at a very early stage and nobody specific was being investigated, there were “many possibilities for culpability. It could be just the captain. It could be the whole crew… we are absolutely not ruling anything out”.

A small team of British marine investigators has also been sent to Sicily to work with their Italian counterparts.

Prosecutors said that they now believed a downburst was the weather phenomenon that hit the ship: a localised, powerful wind that descends from a thunderstorm and spreads unpredictably.

That contradicted previous reports that had identified the cause as a waterspout , or mini tornado at sea.

Either way, it’s clear extreme weather played a major role.

The crucial 16-minute window

Much of the focus for the investigation team is of course on the conduct of the captain, 51-year-old James Cutfield from New Zealand. He survived, along with eight of his crew, and is being questioned.

“We didn’t see it coming,” he told Italian media, alluding to the storm, in his only public comment so far.

The problem is: plenty of others did. Violent winds and rain were forecast, following days of searing heat. The head of the company that built the Bayesian, Giovanni Costantino, told me he was convinced there had been a litany of errors on board.

“At the back of the boat, a hatch must have been left open,” he said, “but also perhaps a side entrance for water to have poured inside.

"Before the storm, the captain should have closed every opening, lifted anchor, turned on the engine, pointed into the wind and lowered the keel."

A keel is a large, fin-like part of the boat that protrudes from its base.

"That would have stabilised the vessel, they would have been able to traverse the storm and continue their cruise in comfort," he said.

Rescuers instead found the wreckage of the Bayesian 50 metres underwater with its almost 10-metre-long keel raised .

Had it been deployed, it could have helped counter the wind buffeting the Bayesian’s 75-metre high aluminium mast and kept the ship stable. But without it, experts told the newspaper La Repubblica that gusts of 100 kilometres an hour (62mph) would have been enough to capsize the ship – and Monday’s storm far exceeded that.

“The Bayesian was a model for many other vessels because of its stability and exceptionally high performance,” Mr Costantino said. “There was absolutely no problem with it. If water hadn’t surged in, it was unsinkable.”

He told me there were 16 minutes between the power going out on the ship at 03:56 – showing that water was flooding areas with electrical circuits – and the GPS signal being lost, indicating the moment it sank.

That period, along with any measures taken to mitigate the extreme weather, will be pored over by investigators, particularly once they locate the vessel’s black box recorder.

Rino Casilli, one of Sicily’s top ship surveyors, similarly believes that errors may have made the yacht vulnerable to the extreme weather.

“There should have been two members of the crew taking turns to be on watch overnight, given the storm warning,” he told me as he took me out on his boat – around a third of the size of the Bayesian. “And it should have been moored in the harbour, not out at sea.”

Prosecutors say they believe one person was on watch in the cockpit that night.

From Casilli's sailing boat, we gained rare access to the spot where the Bayesian went down.

Around us, an Italian police vessel circulated, warning us back. Suddenly, there was a flurry of activity among divers, as other rescue vessels arrived.

We didn’t know at the time – but they had just located more bodies.

It was an intensely challenging operation for the teams to recover those trapped in the wreckage. Given its depth, at 50 metres underwater, each diver was allowed 10 minutes down before resurfacing for their safety – 120 dives in total. They were assisted by remote control vehicles that could operate on the seabed for far longer.

In this weekend’s press conference, rescuers said the passengers trapped inside during the sinking took refuge in cabins on the ship’s left side, where the last air bubbles formed.

Five of the bodies were found in the first cabin on the left, they said, while the last body – confirmed as Hannah Lynch – was in the third cabin on the left side.

Access for the emergency teams was extremely difficult since the yacht remained largely intact with its furniture obstructing entry.

The coastguard compared it to an “18-storey building full of water”. When Ms Lynch’s body was brought ashore emergency workers on the port applauded their colleagues.

All seven of the dead have been transported to a mortuary for post-mortems.

Rescuers will now need to decide whether – and how – to salvage the wreckage, which would undoubtedly offer vital clues as to what happened. But bringing the Bayesian to the surface could take six to eight weeks and cost 15 million euros (£12.7m) by some estimates.

The hunt for clarity

While the divers’ painstaking work to recover the dead has ended, the investigators’ painful hunt for answers has only begun.

They and the survivors are hunkered down in a hotel close to Porticello, which is strictly off-limits to journalists. Security guards promptly asked us to leave.

Solving the enigma of what happened to the Bayesian will be crucial not only to help loved ones of the victims reach some sort of closure, but also for the maritime industry to draw conclusions.

The brother of James Cutfield, the captain, said he was a “well-respected” sailor who had worked on boats his whole life. Did the experienced sailor somehow make a series of catastrophic errors? The trade union Nautilus, which represents seafarers and captains, called for restraint in passing judgement on the Bayesian’s crew.

"Any attempt to question their conduct without the full facts is not only unfair but also harmful to the process of uncovering the truth and learning any lessons from this tragedy," it said.

The world’s media has begun to leave Porticello, which is gradually returning to the tranquillity of its pre-Bayesian era. Stray cats roam among the old fishing boats, and children play as their families eat out at the few seaside restaurants.

But what has happened over the past week has stunned and scarred many here.

“Last Sunday night, we saw the end of the world in Porticello,” said resident Maria Vizzo. “We’ve never seen something like this. Everyone here is shocked – and everyone is crying.”

Tributes to 'brilliant' Mike and Hannah Lynch as family speak of shock

Bayesian sinking: the key questions for investigators, manslaughter considered by sicily yacht sinking investigators, five things we learned from sicily yacht press conference.

Superyacht crew ‘had 16-minute window’ to avoid tragedy

Mike Lynch’s boat was ‘virtually unsinkable’ and its captain should have taken more safety measures, says boss of firm that built it

The crew of Mike Lynch’s superyacht had 16 minutes to avoid the tragedy , the chief executive of the firm that built the boat has claimed.

Giovanni Costantino, the founder and chief executive of the Italian Sea Group, which owns the Perini Navi shipyard where the Bayesian was built, has defended the boat’s construction and blamed human error for the disaster.

Hannah Lynch, the 18-year-old daughter of tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, is the last person unaccounted for after the yacht sank half a mile off the coast of Sicily in the early hours of Monday morning. Specialist cave divers will continue their search for her on Friday.

The bodies of six people killed in the tragedy have been recovered. 

On Thursday, five of the dead were confirmed as Mr Lynch , Jonathan Bloomer , the chairman of Morgan Stanley International bank, and his wife Judy, and Chris Morvillo, a lawyer at Clifford Chance, and his wife Neda. The body of the yacht’s chef was recovered on Monday. 

Italian officials said on Wednesday that they believed Hannah Lynch to be among those recovered , but she is now thought to still be inside the boat. Rescue teams have also not ruled out the possibility that the teenager could have been thrown into the sea during the sinking.

Prosecutors in the town of Termini Imerese, close to Porticello, where the vessel went down, have opened an investigation into the disaster. They will seek to establish what caused the yacht to sink and whether any of the crew are criminally liable.

They are expected to investigate whether the keel played a role in the incident after divers found it partially deployed, and also examine whether the crew failed to close access hatches into the vessel before it was hit by a tornado .

Previous claims suggested that the sinking occurred in 60 seconds, giving the crew little time to respond. 

But Mr Costantino rejected this, telling The Financial Times: “The torture lasted 16 minutes. It went down, not in one minute as some scientists have said. It went down in 16 minutes. You can see it from the charts, from the AIS [Automatic Identification System] tracking chart.

“The captain should have prepared the boat and put it in a state of alert and of safety, just like the boat [the Sir Robert Baden Powell] anchored 350 metres away, which was built in 1957 and handled the [weather] event brilliantly.”

He claimed the Bayesian was “one of the safest boats in the world” and was virtually “unsinkable”, telling Corriere della Sera: “The passengers reported something absurd, that the storm came unexpectedly, suddenly. That is not true. Everything was predictable.

“Ask yourself – why were none of the Porticello fishermen out that night? A fisherman checks the conditions and a ship doesn’t? The disturbance was completely readable on all the weather maps. It was impossible not to know.

“A Perini vessel survived Hurricane Katrina. You don’t think it could survive a tornado like this?”

When divers searched the Bayesian, 158ft underwater, it was reported that the vessel’s retractable keel was partially raised, prompting questions about the boat’s stability at the time of the sinking. 

The fin-like structure, which sits under the hull and is 32ft long when fully deployed, was designed to help stabilise the yacht, acting as a counterweight to the 237ft mast . 

Experts have suggested the keel would normally be fully extended for extra stability during bad weather. It has also been reported that the space housing the boat’s tender was not fully closed when it went down.

From photos and video images of the sinking that have been published, Mr Costantino said it was clear the boat had a blackout caused by a surge of water inside it. 

He said there was no doubt the aft hatch had been left open, adding: “It tilted 90 degrees for only one reason – because the water kept coming in. The time it started coming in to the time it went down was six minutes. Those who say it disappeared in a few seconds are speaking rubbish.”

Specialist divers will continue the hunt for Hannah Lynch on Friday. She had joined her father, along with other guests, to celebrate the British tech tycoon’s court victory after he was acquitted of fraud in San Francisco. 

Massimo Mariani, an interior ministry official, said that she may still be inside the ship or could have been tossed into the sea when the superyacht sank. Vincenzo Zagarola, a spokesman from the Italian coastguard, said the working theory was still that she was inside the boat.

A decision on whether to raise the yacht from the seabed is “not on the agenda” but will be in future, he added.

Hannah Lynch had just won a place at the University of Oxford to read English after receiving her A-level results last week at Latymer Upper School in west London.

The Telegraph understands she received an award for outstanding academic achievement last year. Her parents were also frequent donors to the school, contributing to the bursary fund in 2023, 2022 and 2021.

Her mother, Angela Bacares, 57, survived the disaster but was seen using a wheelchair after suffering lacerations to her feet. Of the 22 passengers and crew on board, 15 were rescued after escaping on to a lifeboat.

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Sunk Superyacht Likely to Cost Insurers at Least $150 Million, Experts Say

FILE PHOTO: Bayesian, a 56-meter-long sailboat, which later sank off the Sicilian capital Palermo, is seen in Santa Flavia, Italy August 18, 2024 in this picture obtained from social media. Baia Santa Nicolicchia/Fabio La Bianca/via REUTERS/File Photo

By Noor Zainab Hussain and Carolyn Cohn

LONDON (Reuters) - Insurers of the Bayesian superyacht that sank this month, killing tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and six others, could be on the hook for at least $150 million, according to the first estimates by industry experts.

The British-flagged 56-metre-long (184-foot-long) yacht, which the experts estimated cost around $40 million, capsized and went down on Aug. 19 within minutes of being hit by a pre-dawn storm while anchored off northern Sicily.

The superyacht's hull was insured against physical damage by yacht insurance provider OMAC and a consortium of insurers including Travelers Companies Inc, Navium Marine and Convex, Reuters reported last week.

Its protection and indemnity (P&I) insurance, which typically covers third-party liability claims including for environmental damage, injury and death, was provided by British Marine.

The hull was likely insured for around $40 million, while the P&I cover would be larger, insurance sources said.

"Our understanding is that the cost of the boat was between $40 and $50 million, so the limit of the hull & machinery policy was probably around those values," said Marcos Alvarez, managing director, global financial institution ratings at Morningstar DBRS.

The P&I policy would likely be "several multiples" of the hull policy, or $200-300 million, Alvarez added, noting it would also likely cover liability payments even if the captain or crew are found to be negligent.

Prosecutors in the town of Termini Imerese, near Palermo, are investigating the captain and two other crew members. An investigation does not imply guilt or mean formal charges will follow. Prosecutors have said the probe would take time and require salvaging the wreck.

Oscar Seikaly, CEO of broker NSI Insurance Group, that provides yacht insurance, estimated the hull value at $40-70 million, but said P&I cover might not total more than $100 million.

P&I insurance would also cover recovery of the Bayesian, said Francesco Dubbioso, country manager for Italy for insurer Alta Signa Europe, who estimated the superyacht's value at $30 million to $40 million.

Reuters is the first to report the potential insurance costs. OMAC, Travelers and Navium Marine did not immediately respond to Reuters' for comment. Convex declined to comment.

The Bayesian disaster, which has puzzled experts who said the boat would have been built to withstand a severe storm, adds to recent woes for yacht insurers, who have faced a raft of hurricane losses in the past few years.

Premium rates have risen by four to five times in the past couple of years in parts of the U.S. and the Caribbean, and yacht insurers have cut the amount of cover they provide because of the risks, Seikaly said.

As a result, insurers have increased rates and re-evaluated their guidelines and risk appetite, according to industry experts.

As well as hurricanes, insured losses have mostly stemmed from severe storms, floods, and other weather events in North America, the Caribbean, and Europe, according to a report by broker Marsh.

Seikaly said four clients had last week been ready to buy boats but changed their minds because of the high cost of insurance.

Climate change was also likely to add to yacht insurers' worries, Seikaly added, as it throws up more unexpected events.

"Whoever thought a storm in the Mediterranean in the month of August is going to sink a ship?"

(Additional reporting by Sinead Cruise; editing by Michelle Price and Sandra Maler)

Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters .

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Everything we know so far about the search for Mike Lynch and the Bayesian superyacht sinking in Sicily

T he identities of five bodies found inside the wreck of the luxury superyacht Bayesian have now been confirmed, and include British technology tycoon Mike Lynch.

Also confirmed dead is Morgan Stanley chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judith Bloomer, Clifford Chance lawyer Christopher Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo, all of whom were aboard when the boat sank in a severe storm off the coast of Sicily.

Mr Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah remains missing, with search efforts resuming on Thursday morning and Salvatore Concina, the head of Sicily’s civil protection agency, saying it remained their “priority” to find her.

The 50-metre vessel sank as a fierce storm battered the area overnight, and was flying a British flag, according to ship-tracking site Marine Traffic.

For the latest updates on this story, follow The Independent’s live blog

What do we know about the missing people on the yacht?

Mike Lynch was among the six tourists who were initially missing after disaster struck. The British technology tycoon founded software giant Autonomy in 1996 and was made an OBE for services to enterprise in 2006. In June, he was cleared of conducting a massive fraud relating to a $11 billion (£8.64bn) sale to US company Hewlett Packard.

One man, the yacht’s chef Recaldo Thomas, was the first person confirmed dead, after his body was discovered on Monday in the hours after the sinking.

Loved ones have paid tributes to Mr Thomas, a Canadian-born man who had been living in Antigua, on social media. One said: “Rest in Power big man. I don’t know what else to say except I love you, and I always will.” Another wrote: “Going to miss you so much Recaldo Thomas still finding this so hard to believe.”

Have you been affected by this story? Email [email protected]

It is understood that Mr Lynch had planned the superyacht cruise as a celebration with family, employees and lawyers who supported him during the decade-long trial.

Among the 15 survivors rescued from a lifeboat was Mr Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares. Another survivor, Charlotte Golunski, 35, told Italian journalists how she saved her one-year-old daughter Sofia from drowning.

She told La Repubblica she lost Sofia for “two seconds”, adding: “I held her afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning. It was all dark. In the water I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I screamed for help but all I could hear around me was the screams of others.”

According to her LinkedIn profile, Ms Golunski is a partner at Mr Lynch’s firm, called Invoke Capital.

Charlotte, Sofia and Charlotte’s husband, James have now been discharged from hospital.

Ayla Reynold, from New Zealand, working at Clifford Chance, also survived the horror with her partner. Her father Lin Ronald confirmed to The Telegraph she had been invited aboard as thanks for assistance in Mr Lynch’s recent court case. He said that his daughter had not given many details about what happened, but said: “There are deaths and she and her partner are alive.”

Two more survivors have also been named as Leah Randall and Katja Chicken. They are both reportedly South African and worked as crew members on the Bayesian.

Where did the yacht sink?

The luxury yacht sunk off the coast of the Sicilian capital of Palermo in Italy.

The 56-metre-long sailboat sank with 22 people on board shortly before sunrise, the Italian coast guard said in a statement.

“The wind was very strong. Bad weather was expected, but not of this magnitude,” a coast guard official in Palermo told Reuters.

Storms and heavy rainfall have swept down Italy in recent days – with floods and landslides causing major damage in the north of the country – after weeks of scorching heat.

The boat left the Sicilian port of Milazzo on 14 August and was last tracked east of Palermo on Sunday evening, with a navigation status of "at anchor", according to vessel tracking app Vesselfinder.

The Bayesian superyacht

The luxury boat, which had been cruising along the Italian coastline, was owned by Revtom, a company registered to Mr Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, which is based on the Isle of Man.

The Bayesian is 56 metres long, according to VesselFinder.

The superyacht can accommodate up to 12 guests in six suites and is listed for rent for up to 195,000 euros (£166,000) a week.

Bayesian completed several sailings in recent days, calling at various ports in Sicily.

Formerly known as Salute, or health in Italian, its 75-metre mast is the tallest aluminium mast in the world, Italian shipbuilder Perini said on its website.

Perini constructed the boat in 2008 and it was last refitted in 2020 and was managed by yachting company Camper & Nicholsons.

Camper and Nicholsons International, confirmed to  The Independent  that the Bayesian sailing yacht “encountered severe weather and subsequently sank”.

What do we know about the search

Body bags were seen being taken to the port of Porticello on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning.

Mr Concina said there will be an investigation in due course, but the priority is finding the missing teenager.

As the body bags were taken back to the port, dozens of emergency services staff were waiting, and one bag was seen being put in the back of an ambulance.

Inspections of the yacht's internal hull took place on Wednesday morning after divers succeeded in smashing through a glass window to enter it amid a reportedly difficult search operation.

A helicopter was drafted in to help the search effort as divers from the local fire service entered the water with torches attached to their headgear. A police boat and divers also entered the water on Wednesday afternoon.

Fire crews said they had been accessing the vessel through natural entrances, without making openings. Remotely controlled underwater vehicles have been used, with naval units and cave divers also taking part in the search, the coastguard said.

A team of four British inspectors from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) also arrived in Porticello to look at the site of the sinking. The MAIB is looking into what happened because the Bayesian was flying a British flag, it is understood. The Italian Coastguard said the MAIB is not involved in the search for the missing people, and that it has not been requested to assist.

Since 1986, The Independent has campaigned for what we believe in, not what we are told to believe, with integrity, inclusion, innovation and independence as our guiding principles.

Jeff Bezos' fanciest toys, from a superyacht to the newest Gulfstream jet

• Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns expensive properties, planes, and a megayacht.
• His most recent acquisitions include mansions on an island in Florida and the latest Gulfstream jet.
• Here's a rundown of Bezos' most expensive toys.

Jeff Bezos has become one of the world's richest people , so it's no surprise that he's purchased lots of expensive toys, from a megayacht to houses on a private island in Florida.

Bezos has a net worth of $192.3 billion and is currently the second-richest person in the world, according to Forbes .

Bezos has invested some of the money that he's made since founding Amazon in 1994 into other businesses. He founded rocket and aerospace company Blue Origin in 2000, for instance. And in 2013, he acquired The Washington Post. This year, he also sold some of his Amazon shares to fund Day 1 Academies , a chain of nonprofit preschools that he founded.

But Bezos has also spent hundreds of millions on planes, a yacht, houses, and other property. A representative for Bezos didn't respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Here's a look at the Bezos-owned planes, yachts, and houses that we know about:

One of Bezos' newest acquisitions seems to be a Gulfstream G700.

Bezos's newest private jet appears to be a Gulfstream G700, according to data from JetSpy. The Amazon founder likely took possession of the plane in July, flight data shows.

The G700 just got approval to fly from the FAA in March and is worth around $80 million, BI previously reported.

The Gulfstream would be Bezos' fourth jet.

The G700 is the latest private jet purchased by Bezo, who has collected multiple private planes over the years.

He previously purchased two Gulfstream G650ERs as well as a Pilatus PC-24, BI reported. With the addition of the G700, Bezo's aircraft are now collectively worth more than $200 million.

Through the same LLC that his two G650ERs are registered to, Bezos has also owned a hangar in Seattle since 2015.

Bezos also has a megayacht called Koru.

Koru , a 127-meter yacht, made her debut in 2023 with a trek around the Mediterranean. The vessel cost about $500 million and includes the Abeona, a support vessel, BI previously reported.

The yacht has hosted celebrities from Bill Gates to Leonardo DiCaprio . Bezos and fianc ée Lauren Sánchez also had their engagement party aboard Koru last year.

Bezos recently bought three mansions on an exclusive island off of Miami.

Over the past year, Bezos has acquired three homes in Indian Creek Village , an island off of Miami known for its lux residences. Other notable property owners there include Tom Brady and Carl Icahn.

Bezos has spent $237 million between the three properties.

He also owns property in the nation's capital.

In 2016, two years before Amazon announced that it was building its HQ2 in Arlington, Virginia, then-Amazon CEO Bezos paid $23 million for a compound across the river in Washington, D.C.

Bezos then spent another $12 million renovating the two-structure property, which previously hosted a textile museum. The property features a ballroom, 11 bedrooms, and 25 bathrooms, BI reported in 2018.

The mansions are just a few properties amongst Bezos' extensive real estate holdings.

The Amazon co-founder owns properties in his company's hometown, including a lakeside compound with a private shoreline, boathouse, and a waterslide.

But his real estate holdings extend far beyond the Pacific Northwest.

In West Texas, Bezos acquired the Figure 2 Ranch, a 30,000-acre property, in 2004, Architectural Digest reported in May. The ranch plays host to Blue Origin.

Bezos' other holdings include homes in Beverly Hills and luxury apartments in Manhattan, according to Architectural Digest.

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News & features, winter center, news / weather news, divers recover body of final missing person from sunken sicily superyacht.

The body believed to be that of Hannah Lynch, the 18-year-old daughter of British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, has been recovered from the wreck of the Bayesian superyacht that sank off Sicily this week.

By Barbie Latza Nadeau, CNN

Published Aug 23, 2024 4:51 AM PDT | Updated Aug 23, 2024 11:18 AM PDT

Rescuers carry a body after divers return in Porticello harbor in Sicily, Italy, August 22. (Photo credit: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

Porticello, Italy (CNN) —  The body believed to be that of Hannah Lynch, the 18-year-old daughter of British tech tycoon  Mike Lynch , has been recovered from the wreck of the  Bayesian  superyacht that sank off Sicily this week, an Italian coast guard official said Friday.

A CNN team on the ground saw divers carry the final body bag from a rescue boat onto the harbor of Porticello, bringing to an end a five-day search by Italian authorities for the seven victims of the shipwreck.

With the wreck located nearly 50 meters (160 feet) underwater, divers have had only around 12 minutes to reach the site and explore its cabins before having to resurface, complicating their efforts to bring all seven bodies to shore.

After retrieving six bodies from the wreck over the past four days, Lynch’s was the final body being searched for by Italian authorities. The body of her father, Mike Lynch, was retrieved and identified on Thursday, an Italian interior ministry official told Reuters.

The British-flagged vessel, with 22 passengers and crew members on board, sank on Monday after its mast, one of the world’s tallest, broke in half during a violent storm. Fifteen people were rescued on Monday and one body was recovered – thought to be that on the onboard chef Recaldo Thomas.

A yacht sank after taking damage in a storm, claiming the lives of several victims, with others able to be rescued alive.

Six others were initially reported missing: Lynch and his daughter; Morgan Stanley International director Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy Bloomer; and prominent American lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda Morvillo.

Five days on, Italian authorities are still working to understand how the 56-meter (184-foot) yacht sank so quickly. Unverified security camera footage released Wednesday appeared to show the moment that a waterspout – a type of  tornado  that spun over Sicily early Monday – sank the vessel.

One witness, the owner of a nearby villa looked out to where the Bayesian was anchored, later watched back his CCTV footage that captured the yacht sinking.

“In just 60 seconds, you can see the ship disappear,” he told Italian outlet ANSA. “You can see clearly what’s happening. There was nothing that could be done for the vessel. It disappeared in a very short time.”

The CEO of the firm that owns the vessel’s manufacturer has, however, detailed a string of avoidable “mistakes” he said may have contributed to the ship sinking.

With bad weather forecast, the ship’s crew should have locked down the hull, closed all the doors and hatches and made the guests group together in the ship’s assembly point, Giovanni Constantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

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How did the superyacht Bayesian sink? Experts say weather was just one factor

Divers searching for 6 missing people locate 5 bodies inside wrecked yacht's hull.

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A complicated search effort is underway deep beneath the surface of the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Italy, where a superyacht sank early Monday during a fierce storm. 

Dive crews are attempting to enter the wreck of the Bayesian, a 56-metre long British-flagged luxury vessel, which is sitting in some 50 metres of water near the Sicilian fishing village of Porticello.

Fifteen of the 22 passengers and crew members on board were rescued. Divers searching for six people considered missing, including British businessman Mike Lynch, located five bodies inside the yacht's hull on Wednesday, and retrieved four of them from the water.

Searchers previously recovered the body of Recaldo Thomas, the ship's Canadian-Antiguan cook, in the water not far from where the Bayesian sank.  

• Diving team finds 5 bodies in Sicily yacht search
• Canadian dead, several others missing after superyacht capsizes off Sicilian coast

Questions have emerged about why a boat designed to handle severe weather sank so rapidly and whether or not some of its features could've been a factor in its demise. Maritime experts say investigations may, in time, reveal what led to the disaster.

"There needs to be an investigation as to why this happened, what went wrong and, you know, how to prevent it in the future cases," said Simon Boxall, an oceanographer and senior lecturer at the University of Southampton in England.

Canadian dead, others missing after superyacht sinks near Sicily

How did the bayesian sink so quickly.

Grainy footage from closed-circuit cameras on the shore broadcast on the website of the Giornale di Sicilia newspaper showed the Bayesian's majestic mast just before it disappeared. 

Karsten Borner, captain of the Sir Robert Baden Powell, which rescued the survivors who managed to get into a lifeboat, told The Associated Press he was close enough to be able to see the Bayesian as the storm came in.

"A moment later, she was gone," he said.

The survivors told the rescuers they went flat on the water "and were sunk in two minutes."

Boxall said vessels rely on being able to steer and navigate stormy seas, but the Bayesian was anchored and stationary, which likely made it more vulnerable to the storm and, potentially, a waterspout , or mini tornado that creates a whirlwind over the surface of the sea. 

He said it was also dark, meaning "you wouldn't see this sort of very unique event coming towards you."

CCTV footage shows yacht Bayesian as deadly storm strikes

"It's a freak of nature," Boxall said. "I think the fact that so many have survived, so far, is probably a miracle."

Tom Sharpe, a retired Royal Navy commander and defence commentator, told CBC News the weather was likely not the only issue.

He says it's rare that a weather event like this takes down a boat. 

"There's nearly always a sequence [of events]," he said in an interview from Guildford, England, explaining that everything from safety protocols to the culture on board the vessel needs to be taken into account. 

Was the boat's design part of the problem?

The Bayesian was built in 2008 by Italian luxury yacht maker Perini Navi.

Andrea Ratti, a nautical design professor at Milan Polytechnic, told Reuters that a boat the size of the Bayesian could only sink so rapidly by taking on a huge amount of water. 

He suggested that one or more portholes, windows or other openings may have been broken or smashed open by the waterspout, letting in water. There has also been media speculation that a major hatch might have been inadvertently left open.

Reports have also highlighted that the Bayesian featured a 72-metre mast — one of the tallest in the world. 

Ratti said an unusually tall mast is not by itself an element of vulnerability in a storm. 

A second expert, structural engineer Filippo Mattioni, was also skeptical about the suggestion the boat may have sunk due to a broken mast, which likely would have caused major damage smashing against the hull.

Fire department diver Marco Tilotta told the newspaper Il Messaggero that the wreck was "apparently intact," with "no gashes, no signs of impact." However, only half of the hull is visible to divers.

The Bayesian also had a retractable keel — the fin-like structure under the hull that helps stabilize boats and acts as a counterweight to the mast. 

Both Ratti and Mattioni wondered if the yacht had been anchored with the keel up, reducing the vessel's depth under water and making it less stable. Ratti said strong winds might have caused the boat to start oscillating wildly, "like a pendulum," putting exceptional strain on the mast.

Sharpe pointed out that a mast the size of the Bayesian's is designed for a massive sail, and without that sail raised and catching the wind, the gusts likely would've had a negligible impact on the aluminum pole.

• What we know about the capsized superyacht off the Sicilian coast

He instead suggested the anchor may have played a pivotal role.

"My kind of working assumption is that she was probably a bit further in at anchor, and it's very likely, in these sort of conditions, that her anchor dragged," he said. 

In such a situation, he said, a crew is better off steering toward the anchor to stabilize the vessel or raising the anchor and heading out to sea to ride out the storm.

"They might have got caught in that middle ground where they're not on a particularly good anchorage, but the anchor is now controlling the bow of the ship."

Sicily superyacht rescue: What divers are up against | About That

What caused the extreme weather.

Although Sharpe says the weather is unlikely the sole cause of the sinking, he notes the Mediterranean isn't the calm sea often pictured in travel brochures. 

"It can get pretty nasty," he said.

The type of storm that struck Monday is fuelled by warm water and the Mediterranean is warmer than ever, said Boxall, noting there's been about a three and a half degree increase in the 20-year average temperature.

'The ship behind us was gone,' says captain who rescued yacht passengers

Climatologists say global warming is making such violent and unexpected tempests more frequent. 

Luca Mercalli, president of Italy's meteorological society, said the sea surface temperature around Sicily in the days leading up to the shipwreck was about 30 C. 

"This creates an enormous source of energy that contributes to these storms," he told Reuters.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Senior Writer

Nick Logan is a senior writer with CBC based in Vancouver. He is a multi-platform reporter and producer, with a particular focus on international news. You can reach out to him at [email protected].

With files from The Associated Press and Reuters

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Questions for Investigators Trying to Unravel Mystery of Luxury Yacht’s Sinking

The investigators searching for answers about the shipwreck, leaving seven dead, face questions about extreme weather and possible human error or problems with the yacht itself.

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By Alan Yuhas

More than 180 feet long, with a mast towering about 240 feet and a keel that could be lowered for greater stability, the Bayesian luxury yacht did not, in the eyes of its maker, have the vulnerabilities of a ship that would easily sink.

“It drives me insane,” Giovanni Costantino, the chief executive of the Italian Sea Group, which in 2022 bought the company that made the ship, said after its wreck last week. “Following all the proper procedures, that boat is unsinkable.”

But the $40 million sailing yacht sank within minutes and with fatal results: seven dead, including the British technology billionaire Michael Lynch, his teenage daughter, four of Mr. Lynch’s friends and a member of the crew. Fifteen people, including the captain, escaped on a lifeboat.

Mr. Lynch had invited family, friends and part of his legal team on a cruise in the Mediterranean to celebrate his acquittal in June of fraud charges tied to the sale of his company to the tech giant Hewlett-Packard.

The Italian authorities have opened a manslaughter investigation, searching for answers from the survivors, the manufacturer and the wreck itself. They face a range of questions and possible factors.

An ‘earthquake’ in the sky?

When the Bayesian sank around 4 a.m. on Aug. 19, the waters in its area, about half a mile off the Sicilian port of Porticello, were transformed by an extremely sudden and violent storm, according to fishermen, a captain in the area and meteorologists.

But what kind of storm is still a mystery, compounded by the fact that a sailing schooner anchored nearby did not have its own disaster. Also unclear is whether the crew was aware that the Italian authorities had issued general warnings about bad weather the night before.

Karsten Börner, the captain of the nearby passenger ship, said he’d had to steady his ship during “really violent” winds . During the storm, he said, the Bayesian seemed to disappear behind his ship.

Severe lightning and strong gusts were registered by the Italian Air Force’s Center for Aerospace Meteorology and Climatology, according to Attilio Di Diodato, its director. “It was very intense and brief in duration,” he said.

The yacht, he said, had most likely been hit by a fierce downburst — a blast of powerful wind surging down during a thunderstorm. His agency put out rough-sea warnings the previous evening, alerting sailors about possible storms.

Locals have said the winds “felt like an earthquake.” A fisherman in Porticello said that he had seen a flare go off in the early-morning hours. His brother ventured to the site once the weather had calmed about 20 minutes later, he said, finding only floating cushions.

The Italian authorities have so far declined to say whether investigators had seen any structural damage to the hull or other parts of the ship.

Open hatches or doors?

The boat executive, Mr. Costantino, has argued that the Bayesian was an extremely safe vessel that could list even to 75 degrees without capsizing. His company, the Italian Sea Group, in 2022 bought the yacht’s manufacturer, Perini Navi, which launched the ship in 2008.

Mr. Costantino said that if some of the hatches on the side and in the stern, or some of the deck doors, had been open, the boat could have taken on water and sunk. Standard procedure in such storms, he said, would be to switch on the engine, lift the anchor and turn the boat into the wind, lowering the keel for extra stability, closing doors and gathering the guests in the main hall inside the deck.

At a news conference on Saturday, almost a week after the sinking, investigators said the yacht had sunk at an angle , with its stern — where the heavy engine was — having gone down first. The wreck was found lying on its right side at the bottom of a bay, about 165 feet deep.

12 guests occupied the yacht’s six cabins. There were also 10 crew members.

Open hatches, doors and cabin windows could have let in water during a storm, according to the manufacturer.

Open hatches, doors and

cabin windows could

have let in water

during a storm,

according to the

manufacturer.

Source: Superyacht Times, YachtCharterFleet, MarineTraffic

By Veronica Penney

Water pouring into open hatches or doors could have contributed to the sinking, experts say, but that on its own may not account for the speed at which such a large boat vanished underwater.

Asked about the hatches at the news conference, the authorities declined to comment on whether they had been found open at the wreck.

The authorities have also not specified whether the boat had been anchored, whether it was under power at the time or whether its sails had been unfurled.

A retracted keel?

The Bayesian had a keel — the fin-like structure beneath a boat that can help stabilize it — that could be retracted or extended, according to its manufacturer. On some yachts, keels can be raised to let the large vessel dock in shallower water, and extended downward to help keep a boat level.

But like the hatches, the status of the keel alone may not explain why a large ship sank with such precipitous speed. Investigators have not disclosed what divers may have seen at the wreck, aside from saying divers had faced obstacles like furnishings and electrical wiring in tight quarters. Officials want to raise the wreck to better examine it, a process that may take weeks.

Human error?

Ambrogio Cartosio, the prosecutor in charge of the case, said at the news conference that it was “plausible” crimes had been committed, but that investigators had not zeroed in on any potential suspects.

“There could be responsibilities of the captain only,” he said. “There could be responsibilities of the whole crew. There could be responsibilities of the boat makers. Or there could be responsibilities of those who were in charge of surveilling the boat.”

It remains unclear what kind of emergency training or preparation took place before the disaster, or what kind of coordination there was during it. So far, none of the surviving crew members have made a public statement about what happened the night the ship sank.

Prosecutors said they want to ask more questions of the captain and crew, who have been in a Sicilian hotel with other survivors. They said that neither alcohol nor drug tests had been performed on crew members, and that they have been allowed to leave Italy.

Prosecutors also said they were also investigating why the captain, an experienced sailor, left the sinking boat while some passengers were still on board.

Besides possible manslaughter charges, the authorities are investigating the possibility of a negligently caused shipwreck.

The bodies of five passengers were found in one cabin, on the left side of the yacht, the authorities said. The five were most likely trying to flee to the higher side of the boat and were probably sleeping when the boat started to sink, they said.

Visa Reportedly Weighing $925 Million Featurespace Acquisition

  Visa is reportedly considering a multimillion-dollar bid for fraud-prevention firm Featurespace .

The payments giant is in advanced talks about a possible sale, Sky News reported Saturday (Aug. 24), citing unnamed sources. One source said the deal could be worth as much as $925 million, while another said the value could be markedly less.

The report notes that Featurespace — whose clients include HSBC, NatWest Group and Worldpay — has seen demand for its services balloon amid rising financial scams. The company makes Adaptive Behavioral Analytics software, which uses machine learning (ML) to spot and prevent fraud in upwards of 180 countries.

PYMNTS has contacted both companies for comment but has not yet gotten a reply from either one .

The Sky News report notes Featurespace’s ties to the late tech investor Mike Lynch, who died last week when his superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily. Featurespace paid tribute to Lynch late last week on its website.

“It is a high statistical probability that Featurespace wouldn’t be a thriving technology company without Mike,” the company wrote. 

“Our co-founders, Professor Bill Fitzgerald and Dave Excell , were inspired by Mike’s combination of intellect and commercial acumen. They benefited from his friendship and guidance. Mike’s personal investment in Featurespace supported the development of an invention that has proved fundamental in the progress of AI and he served as a Non-Executive Director for over 10 years from 2008 – 2019.”

PYMNTS spoke with Excell last month about the prevalence of financial scams , which have been helped along by new tools available to bad actors.

“Unfortunately, the amount of scams and the prevalence of them has continued to increase, as there are new tools available to scammers … to victimize vulnerable populations,” he told Karen Webster in an interview for the “What’s Next In Payments” series.

Featurespace, Excell added, is addressing several scams with its solutions. Among these are job-related scams, which have risen 118% year over year , according to data from the Identity Theft Resource Center. These scams often prey on job hunters by pretending to be legitimate employment agencies or recruiters.

To help banks deal with the growing threat, Featurespace debuted a product called Scam Detect. Based on the concept of data sharing, it lets financial institutions use the information they already have more effectively by consolidating it into a unique piece of intelligence that can track and verify both the funds that are leaving and coming into the institution.

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