Waterspout, missing businessmen… What we know about the sinking of a luxury sailboat off the coast of Sicily

A torrential downpour caused the “Bayesian” to sink on the night of Sunday to Monday. Six people are still missing.

The search continues. Rescuers are trying on Tuesday, August 20, to find the missing people after the sinking of a luxury boat on Monday off the coast of Porticello in Sicily (Italy). Twenty-two passengers and crew members were on board the sailboat 56 meters long named Bayesian and flying the British flag. The ship was caught in a storm on the night of Sunday to Monday, according to the coastguard. It had left the port of Milazzo on August 14 and was sailing around the Aeolian Islands. One body was recovered on Monday, fifteen people were rescued and six are still missing. Here’s what we know about what happened.

A shipwreck caused by a waterspout

The ship sank around 5am on the night of Sunday to Monday, according to the Italian coastguard. Strong winds and a veritable deluge swept the coast, causing material damage to beach establishments. According to several media outlets, including the BBC, this area was crossed by a waterspout, a rotating column of air and water. “We didn’t see the whirlwind coming”told the Italian daily The Republic The captain of the sailboat, James Catfield, was taken to the emergency room in the city of Termini. “I was at home when I saw the tornadoexplained Pietro Asciutto, a fisherman from Porticello, to the Italian news agency Ansa. I saw the ship, which had only one mast, very large. I saw it suddenly sink.”

Karsten Borner, the captain of another yacht anchored nearby at the time of the storm, said there had been a “very strong hurricane gust” and that he had to fight to keep his boat stable. Suddenly, “we noticed that the boat behind us had disappeared”he told the press. “We found this lifeboat (…) with a little baby and the owner’s wife”he added.

Several businessmen missing

A total of 15 people were rescued and seven were initially reported missing – one crew member and six passengers. The body of one of the seven missing was later found in the wreckage of the yacht. The 12 passengers on the boat came from the UK, the US, Canada, New Zealand and Ireland and were occupying six suites on the Bayesian, reports the GuardianMost of the passengers were relatives of British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, the yacht’s owner and one of the missing, the head of Sicilian Civil Protection, Salvo Cocina, told AFP.

The 59-year-old businessman, founder of software publisher Autonomy, is one of Britain’s most famous tech entrepreneurs. In recent years, he had been particularly well-known for a trial in a fraud case linked to the sale of his software to the American group HP for 11 billion dollars in 2011. He was acquitted in June in San Francisco (United States).

His daughter Hannah, 18, is also missing, but his wife, Angela Bacares, was rescued and taken to a local hospital with minor injuries, an AFP correspondent said. Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank Morgan Stanley International, Jonathan Bloomer, and attorney Chris Morvillo are also missing.

Research still ongoing

On Monday, the sun returned, allowing rescuers to conduct searches on calm seas involving a helicopter and divers around the wreck of the boat, located 50 meters deep. But rescuers found only one body, that of of the ship’s cook, of Canadian nationalityexplains Italian public television Rai. Rescuers believe that the bodies of the missing are located in the hull of the ship, reports Ansa. But furniture hindered the possibility of exploring the ship further on Monday. The search therefore resumed on Tuesday morning.

An investigation has been opened, under the coordination of the Termini Imerese Judicial Authority.