Rescue teams trying to access the submerged Bayesian yacht could be listening out for a timed banging noise, a senior university lecturer has said.
Bayesian was moored around half-a-mile off the coast of Porticello when it sank at about 5am local time on Monday as the area was hit by a storm.
The Italian Coastguard said the six missing tourists from the incident, including Mike Lynch, are feared to have died with their bodies trapped inside a luxury yacht.
But Italy’s fire brigade Vigili del Fuoco said it was developing a plan to enter the wreckage of Bayesian, which is resting on the seabed off the coast at a depth of 50 metres.
Dr Jean-Baptiste Souppez, who teaches mechanical, biomedical and design engineering at Aston University, said: “A sign the rescuers may be looking for is a banging noise at regular intervals.
“This is common practice on submarines, and was one of the signs the search mission for the Titan submarine was looking for after it went missing last year.”
Dr Souppez added the next 24 hours of the rescue operation were “crucial” and the chance of air pockets forming inside the vessel was “simply impossible to predict”.
