An Italian Coast Guard vessel and RIB search for the luxury yacht Bayes that sank off the coast of Porticello, Sicily, on Thursday, August 22, 2024.
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Italian prosecutors have launched a manslaughter investigation into the deaths of British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and six others who were on board a luxury yacht that sank off Sicily this week.
The Termini Imerese prosecutor’s office, led by Ambrogio Cartosio, announced the investigation, saying it did not target any individual.
Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah was among the victims when the family’s 56-meter (184-foot) boat Bayes crashed near Porticello, near Palermo on Monday. capsized in a violent predawn storm.
Fifteen people survived, including Lynch’s wife (whose company owned the Bayes) and the yacht’s captain.
Captain James Cutfield and other survivors were questioned by the Coast Guard on behalf of prosecutors. None of them have publicly commented on how the ship sank.
Hannah Lynch’s body was discovered Friday by divers who had spent the past five days searching the underwater vessel. Five other dead passengers were found on Wednesday and Thursday, while the body of the only dead crew member, the ship’s cook Reccardo Tomas, was found on Monday.
The sinking baffled naval experts, who said a ship like the Bayes, built by high-end Italian yacht builder Perini, should have been able to withstand the storm and should not have sunk so quickly anyway.
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