Italian prosecutors open manslaughter investigation into superyacht sinking

Investigators are baffled that a vessel deemed ‘unsinkable’ by its manufacturer sank while a nearby sailboat was spared.

Prosecutors in Italy have opened a manslaughter investigation after a superyacht capsized off the coast of Sicily, killing seven people on board.

Ambrogio Cartosio, a prosecutor in the town of Termini Imerese, said on Saturday that no suspect has currently been identified in the incident.

Seven people, including UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch, were killed in the sinking of the Bayesian, a 56m (184-foot) British-flagged luxury yacht that went down in a storm early on Monday.

The vessel was carrying 12 passengers and 10 crew members.

The public prosecutor’s office in Termini Imerese has filed a case “against unknown persons, hypothesising the crimes of negligent shipwreck and multiple negligent manslaughter”, Cartosio told reporters.

“We are only in the initial phase of the investigation. We can’t exclude any sort of development at present,” he said.

Investigators are baffled that a yacht deemed “unsinkable” by its Italian manufacturer Perini sank while a nearby sailboat remained largely unscathed.

Lynch, 59, was celebrating his recent acquittal in the United States on $11bn fraud charges linked to the sale of his software firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard.

His wife, Angela Bacares, was among the wreck’s 15 survivors.

Civil protection officials said they believe the yacht was struck by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout, and sank quickly.

It took rescuers four days to find all the bodies, the last of which is believed to be that of Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah.

“The Lynch family is devastated, in shock and is being comforted and supported by family and friends. Their thoughts are with everyone affected by the tragedy,” a spokesperson for the family said in a statement issued on Friday.

The other five victims are Christopher Morvillo, one of Lynch’s US lawyers, and his wife, Neda; Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley’s London-based investment banking subsidiary, and his wife, Judy; and Recaldo Thomas, the yacht’s chef.