Luxury yacht sinks in Sicily, leaves one dead and six missing

Twelve passengers and ten crew members, mostly British, were on board the yacht, which had anchored off the port of Porticello.

“This morning around 5 o’clock, following a violent storm, a 56-meter sailboat, named Bayesian and flying the British flag, sank off Porticello”a coastal town about 15 kilometers east of Palermo, Italy, the coast guard said in a statement. In the middle of the night, strong winds and a deluge of rain swept the coast, causing material damage to beach establishments. According to local media, the sailboat, which had dropped anchor 700 meters off the port of Porticello, found itself in the path of a waterspout, a phenomenon increasingly observed in Europe in recent years.

Twelve passengers and ten crew members were on board the yacht, the majority of whom were British, according to Italian media. Fifteen people were rescued and seven were initially reported missing: one crew member and six passengers, of British, American and Canadian nationality. The body of one of the seven missing was later found in the wreckage of the sailboat and recovered. Eight castaways were taken to local hospitals.

Charlotte, a 35-year-old British passenger who was on board with her husband, colleagues from a London company and a few relatives, said she lost her one-year-old daughter “for two seconds” in the water before retrieving it. “I immediately hugged her in the midst of the fury of the waves. Many were screaming. Fortunately, the lifeboat was inflated and 11 of us got on board.”she told the Italian news agency Ansa. The woman and her baby were hospitalized, but are out of danger.

A search involving a helicopter, divers and coastguard vessels is still underway around the wreck of the boat, which has been located at a depth of 50 metres. An investigation has been opened, under the coordination of the Termini Imerese Judicial Authority.