Bayesian superyacht sinking: Horror of those trapped in bedrooms described by former captain
A former captain of the Bayesian has described the terrifying obstacles facing those trapped in the cabins as the Bayesian superyacht overturned killing seven.
Stephen Edwards, who captained the Bayesian for five years until 2020, told The Telegraph: “Those who stayed curled up in bed were in the worst situation.
“The storm hit hard, placing them in the melee of flying furniture, glass and other items,” he said adding he had spoken to traumatised crew members.
“Inside the cabins, the only way to think of this is that people were lying in their beds one minute, and the next the room was on its side, totally dark, with the door now either in the floor or in the ceiling above.”
It came as divers race to retrieve Mike Lynch’s personal hard drives locked in a safe on the ocean floor, according to reports.
Italian newspaper la Repubblica reported that the tech billionaire, whose clients included MI5, the NSA and the Israeli secret service, didn’t trust confidential documents on the cloud and kept two encrypted hard drives in a safe which now lies 49 metres below sea level.
Key points
Italian navy recover video equipment
Two encrypted hard drives of Mike Lynch remain 49m underwater locked in safe - report
Professor fears more deaths by ‘medicanes’ after Bayesian tragedy
Mike Lynch’s yacht was ‘unsinkable’, says boss of company who built boat
Seven key unanswered questions around the sinking of the Bayesian
Seven key unanswered questions around the sinking of the Bayesian
15:00 , Barney Davis
With the Bayesian lying on her side 50 metres underneath the now gentle waters of the Mediterranean, mystery still surrounds how the 56-metre superyacht, sank in the typhoon off the port of Porticello.
Remotely controlled underwater vehicles and cave divers are looking to raise the yacht, which experts will examine in the coming days.
The key unanswered questions around the tragic sinking of the Bayesian
Work to recover the superyacht begins with 200m red zone established off Porticello
13:00 , Barney Davis
TMC Marine, a company specialising in “planning and executing high-risk maritime operations and investigating and resolving serious maritime incidents and disputes” have arrived in Porticello.
The delicate operation could cost as much as £15 million to raise the Bayesian superyacht will require barges with cranes as the locals complain about the impact.
“When will the recovery be carried out?” one fisherman asked workers according to La Repubblica.
“For us,” added another, “it is better that these operations end as soon as possible.”
He pointed towards a 200m radius which is still forbidden to sail on and is constantly monitored by the coast guard.
“The community is preparing for the feast of the Madonna del Lume,” added a nearby bar worker referencing an upcoming October holiday.
“That day the painting of the Madonna, symbol of the village, will be carried out of the church, passing through the hands of the faithful, and then hundreds of boats will pour into the sea.”
The deadly waterspouts thought to have caused Sicily boat tragedy
12:30 , Barney Davis
In Italy waterspouts can involve winds of up to 200 kilometres (124 miles) per hour, while downbursts can produce gusts of around 150 km per hour.
Statistics show that downbursts are becoming more frequent around the country, which Mercalli said may be connected to global warming.
Storms and heavy rainfall have swept down Italy in recent days after weeks of scorching heat.
“The sea surface temperature around Sicily was around 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit), which is almost 3 degrees more than normal. This creates an enormous source of energy that contributes to these storms,” Italian climatologist Luca Mercall said.
“So we can’t say that this is all due to climate change, but we can say that it has an amplifying effect.”
A similar freak storm killed four people, when their tourist boat sank on Lake Maggiore in northern Italy in May last year.
The country’s varied geology makes it prone to floods and landslides, while the fact it is flanked by rapidly warming seas means it is vulnerable to increasingly powerful storms.
Bodies of Mike Lynch and daughter Hannah flown back to families after Bayesian superyacht sinking
11:30 , Barney Davis
The bodies of those who died after the billionaire Mike Lynch’s Bayesian superyacht sunk off the coast of Sicily have been flown back to their families by private jet.
Italian publication Giornale di Sicilia reported post-mortem examinations were completed at a Palermo hospital and the bodies have now been returned.
My colleague Tom Watling reports:
Bodies of Mike Lynch and daughter flown back to UK after Bayesian tragedy
Four victims found with carbon dioxide in lungs
08:30 , Barney Davis
Tech billionaire Mike Lynch, his daughter Hannah, 18, and five other people died when the Bayesian went down in a downburst, which is similar to a small tornado.
Chef Recaldo Thomas, Jonathan Bloomer, the Morgan Stanley International bank chairman, his wife Judy, and Chris Morvillo, a Clifford Chance lawyer, and his wife Neda, were the other victims of the August 19 tragedy.
Four of the victims are feared to have suffocated to death in air bubbles that filled with carbon dioxide, according to their autopsies raising the frightening possibility that they may have been conscious after the yacht sank, according to Italian news outlet La Republica.
Fifteen people, including Angela Bacares, Lynch’s wife, survived when they were rescued by a nearby yacht.
Former captain says surviving crewmembers all have PTSD from sinking
Thursday 19 September 2024 18:30 , Barney Davis
The former captain of the Bayesian superyacht says he has spoken to all of the surviving crew to hear their account of the sinking.
Stephen Edwards said all the crew members who were on deck rescued as many passengers as they could but that heading down towards the flooded lower parts of the yacht “would have meant certain death”.
The former captain told The Telegraph: “They are not doing very well”
“The dominant feeling is still one of shock from the event. They are dealing with what happened, how it happened and how quickly it happened.”
Bayesian yacht sinking: Banking boss among four victims who ‘suffocated in cabin air bubble’
Thursday 19 September 2024 15:37 , Barney Davis
Four of the victims of last month’s Bayesian yacht disaster died after oxygen ran out in an air bubble on the sunken vessel, it has been reported.
Autopsies over the past few days on four of those who died have revealed an absence of water in their lungs, suggesting they suffocated as the air became saturated with carbon dioxide, Italian publication La Repubblica said.
The outlet reported post-mortems showed four people died from “atypical drowning”, with “no water in their lungs, trachea and stomach”. There were no signs of external injuries.
HP looking to recoup £4billion from Mike Lynch’s estate despite Bayesian tragedy
Thursday 19 September 2024 13:13 , Barney Davis
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is making the “difficult decision” to pursue Mike Lynch’s estate for £4billion in the interests of shareholders despite the tech billionaire being killed along with his daughter on the Bayesian superyacht.
Antonio Neri, the former engineer turned chief executive at HPE, told the Financial Times: “Obviously my job as a representative of shareholders is to make the difficult decisions.
“These are difficult decisions. But in the end, we are making decisions in the best interest of shareholders.”
Mike Lynch had been celebrating his acquittal from criminal charges on the superyacht when it overturned in a freak storm.
But HPE intends to pursue damages around an earlier UK civil trial in 2022 which found in favor of HPE’s claim that Lynch and ex-CFO Sushovan Hussain had inflated the apparent value of Autonomy during the acquisition.
Mike Lynch’s co-defendant died from head injury after being hit by car days before yacht sinking
Thursday 19 September 2024 07:45 , Barney Davis
Mike Lynch’s co-defendant Stephen Chamberlain died in hospital three days after being hit by a car on a country road, an inquest heard.
The 52-year-old, from Longstanton in south Cambridgeshire, was struck by a blue Vauxhall Corsa travelling between Stretham and Wicken on the A1123 at about 10.10am on 17 August.
Mr Chamberlain, a former vice president of finance at Mike Lynch’s software firm Autonomy, had been out running at the time, his lawyer Gary Lincenberg said.
Coroner Caroline Jones told the inquest in Alconbury that his medical cause of death was recorded as “traumatic head injury”.
Mike Lynch ‘likely died of suffocation’ after running out of oxygen on sunken yacht
Thursday 19 September 2024 04:45 , Barney Davis
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch is likely to have died of suffocation after running out of oxygen, according to a source close to the investigation.
They cited initial examinations carried out on Saturday after the businessman’s body was recovered from the family yacht that sank off Sicily’s coast last month during a freak weather incident.
Mr Lynch died alongside his 18-year-old daughter, the boat’s chef and four others, who were onboard the British-flagged superyacht Bayesian to celebrate his recent acquittal after a lengthy decade-long legal battle.
Initial results of examinations of Hannah Lynch’s body on Saturday were inconclusive, the source told the Reuters news agency.
Mike Lynch’s yacht was ‘unsinkable’, says boss of company who built boat
Thursday 19 September 2024 02:44 , Barney Davis
Giovanni Costantino, the chief executive of the Italian Sea Group, said there are no flaws with the design and construction of the Bayesian and it is “one of the safest boats in the world”.
The Bayesian, a 184-ft superyacht carrying 22 passengers and crew, was anchored off the port of Porticello, near Palermo, when it disappeared beneath the waves in a matter of minutes after a freak tornado struck.
“The ship sank because it took on water, from where investigators will have to say,” Mr Costantino told television news programme TG1.
He suggested that the sinking was down to a series of human errors.
The CEO said that had the crew shut all doors and hatches, turned on the engine, lifted the anchor, lowered the keel and turned the yacht to face the wind, they would have suffered “zero damage”.
He added that data showed it took 16 minutes from when the wind began for it to sink.
Cartoisio said the tragedy will be even more painful if the sinking was caused by “behaviours that were not aligned to the responsibilities that everyone needs to take in shipping”.
£4billion deal to purchase Mike Lynch’s Darktrace
Wednesday 18 September 2024 21:50 , Barney Davis
Darktrace shares are set to stop trading publicly at the end of September, after the company set a timetable for its blockbuster private equity takeover to be completed.
The private equity group Thoma Bravo struck an almost 5.31 billion dollar (£4.3 billion) deal to buy Darktrace in April.
It marks one of the biggest take-private deals for a London-listed company in recent years, and will see Darktrace leave the FTSE 100 on October 1.
Founded in 2013, Cambridge-based Darktrace is a cybersecurity firm best known for using artificial intelligence to scan for hacks and data leaks inside IT networks.
A prominent company in the UK tech landscape, it was among the firms represented at the AI Safety Summit at Bletchley Park in November, where world leaders and major tech firms met to discuss the potential threat of artificial intelligence.
The update comes after Poppy Gustafsson stepped down as chief executive earlier in September amid the takeover.
Ms Gustafsson, who co-founded the business in 2013, will be replaced as chief executive by Jill Popelka, the company said.
Ms Gustafsson helped to set up the Cambridge-based company in 2013 alongside Autonomy founder Mike Lynch.
Mr Lynch, and his daughter Hannah, were among seven people to die after the Bayesian superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily last month.
Captain gives his account of tragic sinking
Wednesday 18 September 2024 14:38 , Barney Davis
Captain James Cutfield previously gave his terrifying account before invoking his right to remain silent.
According to Correire, he told prosecutors: “Seaman Griffiths came to wake me up and told me that there were 20 knots of wind.
“I looked at the instruments and indeed that was the case. I went out immediately and asked them to warn everyone because I didn’t like the situation.”
He said the Bayesian tilted 45 degrees “and remained like that for a bit and then suddenly fell to the right.
“We were catapulted into the sea”.
Seaman Matthew Griffiths, 22, said: “We somehow climbed back up to the bridge and tried to form a human chain to save those who managed to reach that gap from the accommodation deck ... they were struggling on the walls because the boat was lying in the water.
“The first in the chain was the captain who stretched down. He helped everyone, the ladies, the mother with the little girl ... But we were sinking and unfortunately some didn’t make it .”
Mr Griffiths joins fellow Brit Tim Parker-Eaton, 56, and Kiwi skipper James Cutfield, 51, on the official list of those being formally investigated for shipwreck and multiple manslaughter.
Being investigated does not equate to being charged and is a procedural step.
Divers hunting for clues on how Mike Lynch’s superyacht sank make discovery
Wednesday 18 September 2024 13:30 , Barney Davis
Italian Navy divers have recovered video surveillance equipment from the wreckage of billionaire Mike Lynch’s Bayesian superyacht that could explain how it sank.
The British tech tycoon’s boat had been moored near the port of Porticello on 19 August when it sank during the early hours of the morning. It is now lying 50m below the surface.
Jabed Ahmed reports:
Divers hunting for clues on how Mike Lynch’s superyacht sank make discovery
Mike Lynch and daughter Hannah were ‘part of a united, vibrant, loving family’
Wednesday 18 September 2024 12:02 , Barney Davis
Family friends of Mike and Hannah Lynch have said the father and daughter were part of a “united, vibrant, loving family” – with the teenager remembered as a “diamond in a sea of stars” and the tech mogul as a brilliant storyteller.
Mr Lynch was the creator of software giant Autonomy and had been cleared in June of carrying out a massive fraud related to its 11 billion dollar (£8.64 billion) sale to US company Hewlett Packard.
His daughter Hannah had recently finished her A-levels and was due to study at Oxford University.
Sasha Murray, chief stewardess of the Bayesian, said: “Those who knew her will know that Hannah was a diamond in a sea of stars. Bright, beautiful and always shining.
“What most people may not have seen was the extraordinarily strong, deep and loving relationship she shared with her parents, whom she adored more than anything.
“While swimming with them she often said, if anything ever happened she would save them.
“I have no doubt that the Irish, Latina fire that burns in her soul kept that spirited determination alive.”
It is understood Ms Murray was rescued after disaster struck the yacht.
Former captain describes horror of those trapped in cabins
Wednesday 18 September 2024 10:14 , Barney Davis
Stephen Edwards, who captained the Bayesian for five years until 2020, told the Telegraph that he had spoken to crew members onboard during the sinking who recounted the horrors facing those onboard.
He said: “The storm hit hard, placing them in the melee of flying furniture, glass and other items.
“Some had made it to the saloon at this point and they are the ones who survived, as their route outside would have been a little clearer.
“Inside the cabins, the only way to think of this is that people were lying in their beds one minute, and the next the room was on its side, totally dark, with the door now either in the floor or in the ceiling above.
“Cabinets crashed open as the catches were weak, resulting in glassware and crockery falling out. I’m told almost all the furniture broke loose inside the boat.”
Mike Lynch’s wife, along with 14 others, survived and were rescued by a nearby vessel that was unscathed.
Italian navy recover video equipment
Wednesday 18 September 2024 09:00 , Barney Davis
Italian Navy divers have recovered video surveillance equipment from the wreckage of billionaire Mike Lynch’s Bayesian superyacht that could explain how it sank.
The British tech tycoon’s boat had been moored near the port of Porticello on 19 August when it sank during the early hours of the morning. It is now lying 50m below the surface.
Among those killed were Mr Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, who had been due to begin studying at Oxford University in September, as well as four other family friends and associates.
Divers hunting for clues on how Mike Lynch’s superyacht sank make discovery
What happens now weeks after tragic sinking?
Wednesday 18 September 2024 07:00 , Barney Davis
Prosecutors are investigating the captain, New Zealander James Cutfield, and two crew members for possible responsibility in connection with the sinking.
Mr Cutfield is under investigation for possible manslaughter and culpable shipwreck charges. Tim Parker Eaton — the engineer who was in charge of securing the yacht’s engine room — and sailor Matthew Griffith — who was on watch duty on the night of the disaster — are now under investigation for the same possible charges, their lawyer said.
Chief prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio, who is heading the investigation, has said his team will consider each possible element of responsibility including those of the captain, the crew, individuals in charge of supervision and the yacht’s manufacturer.
Investigators are focusing on how a sailing vessel deemed “unsinkable” by its manufacturer, Italian shipyard Perini Navi, sank while a nearby sailboat remained largely unscathed. They added raising the Bayesian and examining the yacht for evidence would provide key elements to the investigation.
Maritime director of western Sicily, Rear Admiral Raffaele Macauda of the coastguard, could not confirm how long it would take to retrieve the shipwreck of the sunken yacht, adding recovering the fuel tanks was a “priority for us because it has environmental knock-on effects”.
Chris Morvillo and wife drowned aboard Bayesian
Wednesday 18 September 2024 00:47 , Barney Davis
Italian authorities said the first post-mortem examinations on the victims had been carried out on US lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda. The results confirmed that the pair had drowned.
Morvillo was a partner at Clifford Chance, a white-collar law firm. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor who investigated the September 11 terror attacks, according to the New York Post.
Autopsies reveal cause of death of US lawyer and wife onboard Mike Lynch’s superyacht
Tuesday 17 September 2024 18:47 , Barney Davis
Autopsies have been carried out on a couple who drowned on Mike Lynch’s superyacht when it sank off the coast of Sicily last month.
Seven lives were lost when the British-flagged boat, called the Bayesian, went down in a freak storm while anchored near the Sicilian capital of Palermo on 19 August.
Autopsies reveal cause of death of US lawyer and wife onboard Mike Lynch’s superyacht
Darktrace to be taken over after Mike Lynch’s death
Tuesday 17 September 2024 16:45 , Barney Davis
Darktrace shares are set to stop trading publicly at the end of September, after the company set a timetable for its blockbuster private equity takeover to be completed.
The private equity group Thoma Bravo struck an almost 5.31 billion dollar (£4.3 billion) deal to buy Darktrace in April.
Darktrace AI interrupts in-progress cyber-attacks in seconds, including ransomware, email phishing, and threats to cloud environments.
It marks one of the biggest take-private deals for a London-listed company in recent years, and will see Darktrace leave the FTSE 100 on October 1.
Poppy Gustafsson helped to set up the Cambridge-based company in 2013 alongside Autonomy founder Mike Lynch.
Mr Lynch, and his daughter Hannah, were among seven people to die after the Bayesian superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily last month.
Bodies flown back to UK on private planes - report
Tuesday 17 September 2024 15:44 , Barney Davis
The bodies of Mike Lynch, his daughter Hannah, 18, and the other victims of the Bayesian disaster have been flown back to their families after their post-mortems, according to reports.
They were repatriated on private planes, with their private funerals expected to be held over the coming days, Italian media reports.
The British tech tycoon’s boat had been moored near the port of Porticello on 19 August when it sank during the early hours of the morning. It is now lying 50m below the surface.
Among those killed were Mr Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, who had been due to begin studying at Oxford University in September, as well as four other family friends and associates.
Jonathan Bloomer, the international chairman of Morgan Stanley Bank; his wife Judith, a psychotherapist; Christopher Morvillo, a US lawyer; and his wife Neda, a jewellery designer also died in the sinking.
Also killed was the yacht’s chef, Recaldo Thomas, whose body was recovered floating near the wreckage.
