Search teams recovered the body of Hannah, 18, daughter of British businessman Mike Lynch, on Friday 23 August, the last person missing from the wreck of the ‘Bayesian’, the sailboat that sank last Monday in the sea off Porticello, in Palermo (Sicily), after a strong tornado.
During the morning, divers had returned to the 50-metre depth, where the luxury yacht is located, in search of the last victim, after they recovered on Thursday the body of the fifth of the six missing, which was Mike Lynch, according to the media.
By mid-morning, search teams had located the body and an hour later they managed to recover it and take it to dry land to be transferred by ambulance to the Portici cemetery in Palermo, where the remains of the other six victims of the shipwreck are located.
After four days of difficult searching due to the depth, which did not allow the divers to stay submerged for more than 12 minutes, the only thing left to do was to find Hannah, after having recovered the bodies of the president of the Morgan Stanley International bank, Jonathan Bloomer, and his wife Judy, and the businessman’s lawyer, Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda.
While on the first day of searching, the body of the ship’s cook, Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian born on the island of Antigua, was recovered at sea.
The young woman was found, like the other victims, outside the cabins, which has led to the belief that the six victims tried to leave the sailboat while it was sinking.
Causes of shipwreck investigated in Sicily, Italy
The Termini Imerese Public Prosecutor’s Office, which is investigating the shipwreck for the crimes of multiple homicide and shipwreck due to negligence, will now be able to order autopsies of the victims and has announced a press conference for next Saturday to give details on the opening of the investigation.
It remains to be seen how the 56-metre luxury yacht, equipped with the most sophisticated radar technology and equipment, could have sunk in just a few minutes, as demonstrated by the numerous videos acquired by investigators at homes and at a yacht club located in the area.
One of the initial hypotheses was that the mast, which measured 75 metres, had broken, but rescue operations have shown that it is in fact intact.
Another is that the ship tilted so much that water rushed in because the hatches and side doors were open, despite warnings that a storm was approaching.
