Sicily yacht sinking: Italian investigators look into homicide

Italian authorities investigating the death of seven people in the sinking of a luxury yacht off Sicily say they are looking into possible charges of “shipwreck and manslaughter”.

However, they stressed that the investigation is still in its stages and they are not targeting anyone directly.

UK tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah were among those who died when Bayesians descended on Porticello beach during the storm in the early hours of Monday.

It was previously believed that the ship may have sunk due to water leakage, but authorities now say the main cause was a local, strong wind known as a downburst.

The bodies of Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of the bank Morgan Stanley International, his wife Judy Bloomer, Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo, and his wife Neda Morvillo were also found in the disaster 50m (164 ft) down, after days of intensive searches and little visibility.

The body of Canadian-Antiguanian Recaldo Thomas, who worked as a chef on a superyacht, was found at the scene on Monday.

Autopsies are scheduled to be performed.

The remaining 15 people aboard the luxury yacht were rescued.

At a press conference on Saturday morning, Ambrogio Cartosio, chief prosecutor of the nearby town of Termini Imerese, said the coast guard was called at 04:38 local time on Monday but the boat had sunk by the time crews arrived.

Mr Cartosio told reporters he thought “criminal charges may have been made” over the sinking.

He said that they will make sure that the captain, the crew, the people in charge, the shipbuilder, or others can be held responsible.

“We will establish the work of each element – that will be investigated, so we can’t do that ahead of time,” he said.

“To me, it’s possible that crimes were committed – possibly murder – but we can only determine that if you give us time to investigate.”

Raffaele Macauda, ​​deputy commander of the Palermo coast guard, said that the weather at the time of the sinking of the boat was unusual, adding that there were wind forecasts and a storm warning.

There is no warning that there is a tornado, said the deputy commander.

Mr Macauda said: “Because the circumstances were such, there was nothing to suggest that there could be a worse situation that could arise.

“There are ships that know how to be careful, after all these events and one would have thought that the captain had taken safety measures.”

Deputy Prosecutor Raffaele Cammarano told reporters that the Italian Air Force confirmed that the sinking was caused by an explosion.

A downburst is local, strong wind that descends from a storm, spreading rapidly as it hits the ground.

Girolamo Bentivoglio Fiandra, who works at the fire department in Palermo, said that the Bayesian sank from the back and then rolled to the right.

He explained that as a result, the victims then sought shelter in the houses on the left side of the ship where “the last air bubbles formed”.

Local officials said they are looking into why some people on board were able to escape the ship and others were not.

Speaking for the divers, Mr Fiandra said that about 70 people are participating in the “intense” search operation every day, with a total of 123 dives.

“We were working at a depth of 50 meters and…we seem very small because of the weather,” he said.

One of the divers involved in the operation told the media that it was “difficult” to enter the boathouses and it took “a very long time to remove the obstacles” from them.

Mr Macauda said the coast guard was conducting intensive environmental monitoring.

He adds that Bayesian’s owner has expressed an interest in returning the ship to sea, but the timing of this was uncertain.

Some experts have estimated that it could take eight weeks to restore the yacht.

The official said Italian authorities had no “specific information” about the yacht’s black box – a device capable of recording data including the vessel’s position, speed, radar information, and sometimes sound.

Passengers on the boat appeared to be celebrating Mr Lynch’s acquittal in a US fraud case.

The businessman, who founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, was cleared in June of fraud related to his $11bn (£8.64bn) sale of US firm Hewlett Packard.

Andrew Kanter, Mr Lynch’s best friend, said he was “the most intelligent” and “the most responsible person I’ve ever known”.

Meanwhile, friends of his daughter, Hannah, have described the 18-year-old as a “warm and beautiful soul” and teachers have praised her “sky-high intellectual ability”.

In a statement, the Bloomer family described Jonathan and Judy Bloomer as “wonderful people and an inspiration to many”.

“What comforts us is that they are together now,” said the statement.