At a press conference by the authorities, the first details of the investigation into the sinking of the superyacht were announced. Seven dead: all victims recovered by divers.
“We have opened a file against unknown persons accused of involuntary manslaughter and culpable homicide,” declared Termini Imerese prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio during a press conference held on Saturday morningin which he offered updated information on the superyacht case Bayesian, which was shipwrecked on Monday, August 19 in front of Porticelloa small town on the coast of Palermo.
Seven of the 22 people on board lost their lives in the shipwreck, includingBritish technology mogul Mike Lynch and his daughter Hannah. Cartosio confirmed the start of the investigation, but said that no suspect had been identified at this time.
“We are only in the initial phase of the investigation. At the moment we cannot rule out any type of development,” said Cartosio, confirming that no suspect has been identified. He added that his team will carefully evaluate all possible elements of liability, including those of the ship captainthe crewlos supervisorshe boat builder and others.
“To me, it is likely that crimes were committed, that it could be a case of involuntary manslaughter, but We can only establish it if we are given time to investigate” he said, explaining that the crew members will be allowed to leave Sicily, but may be investigated again.
The ‘downburst’ hypothesis against the “unsinkable” sailboat
The main question that researchers focus on is how a sailboat considered “unsinkable” by its builderthe Italian shipyard Perini Navi, sank while a neighboring sailboat was practically unharmed.
Prosecutors stated that the event was “extremely fast” and that the information obtained seemed to indicate that it was a ‘downburst’, a localized, powerful wind that descends from a thunderstorm and spreads rapidly once it makes landfall.
Initially, Civil Protection officials said they believed what the yacht, which had a characteristic 75-meter aluminum mast, had been hit by a tornado in the waterknown as a waterspout.
When will the Bayesian superyacht recover?
Investigators also wondered why the crew survived almost entirely, except for the chef, while six passengers were trapped in the hull. Girolamo Bentivoglio, the new commander of the Palermo Fire Department, confirmed that most of the bodies recovered were in the same part of the ship -to port and closer to the surface-, suggesting that the passengers had sought safety in the cabinss where the last air bubbles had formed.
Deputy prosecutor Raffaele Cammarano said it is the passengers were probably asleepand added that one of the main objectives of the investigation is to find out if they were alerted by someone. Cammarano also confirmed that a person was on duty at the cabin.
“The deadline for returning the yacht to the surface is uncertain, everything depends on the will of the owners, shipowners and management company. The maritime authority will direct the operation with its own technicians, but at the moment we are still in the preliminary phase: We will impose the insurance of the boat by emptying the tanks“said Palermo Coast Guard Commander Raffaele Macauda. However, Cartosio stated that the first suspects could be announced even before the wreck is recovered.
For divers, the memory of the Costa Concordia
Giuseppe Friso, head of the Firefighters’ diving team, participated in the recovery of the victims and said that the operation reminiscent of the shipwreck of the Costa Concordia. “For me it was like reliving that movie, in a smaller but also more intense way. Inside, the setting was very similar. We had difficulty continuing because the furniture, having overturned, prevented us from continuing safely. But We work systematically, something we learned in that operationin which the dimensions were very large,” explains Friso.
Who are the victims of the shipwreck
On Friday, rescuers brought the last of seven bodies ashore from the Bayesian wreck. It was about Hannah Lynch18, daughter of Mike Lynch, whose body was recovered Thursday. The man had celebrated his recent acquittal of fraud charges with his family and those who had defended him at the trial in the United States. His wife, Angela Bacares, is among the 15 survivors.
Rescuers fought for four days to find all the bodies, slowly making their way through the wreckage that They lay on the seabed 50 meters deep.
The other five victims They are Christopher Morvillo, one of Lynch’s American lawyers, and his wife, Neda; Jonathan Bloomer, president of the London branch of Morgan Stanley, and his wife, Judy; and Recaldo Thomas, the yacht’s cook.
