Divers are racing 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.
Investigators from Palermo said that no personal effects of the seven victims and 15 survivors have been recovered so far and that surveillance on the sailing ship continues 24 hours a day. They say the only hard drives brought to the surface are those of the ship.
An investigation into manslaughter is set to continue after specialist divers recovered video equipment that could explain how it sank.
Italian prosecutors will continue their probe after a source told Reuters Navy divers recovered parts of the deck, computer material, video surveillance systems, hard drives and various other equipment.
The electronic devices have been sent to specialised labs outside of Sicily to check their condition and possibly recover data, the source added.
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
Four victims found with carbon dioxide in lungs
14:44
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.
Mike Lynch’s yacht was ‘unsinkable’, says boss of company who built boat
12:44
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”.
Bodies of Mike Lynch and daughter Hannah flown back to families after Bayesian superyacht sinking
11:44
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:
Captain gives his account of tragic sinking
11:38
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.
Professor fears more deaths by ‘medicanes’ after Bayesian tragedy
11:27
Barney Davis
Professor Yoav Yair, Dean of the School of Sustainability at Reichman University in Israel, told the Mirror that storms dubbed ‘medicanes’ - Mediterranean hurricanes - could cause similar sinkings like the Bayesian superyacht.
He said: “It is not a matter of if this (the Bayesian disaster) will happen again, but rather it’s when and where.
“In the last couple of years we have seen medicanes - which are a new phenomena. These are hurricane-like storms that pack a lot of energy, and create flash flooding, torrential rains, lightning, hail and severe sustained winds. The 2023 “Daniel” medicane destroyed Libya and caused over 30,000 deaths there.
“The sea surface temperature has risen globally and in the Med as well, charging the atmosphere with increased fluxes of water vapor, which means a higher potential for massive storms.”
Seven key unanswered questions around the sinking of the Bayesian
09:37
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.
Italian navy recover video equipment
08:37
Alexander Butler
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.
