DIVERS scouring the wreckage of the doomed superyacht Bayesian have been delving into untold dangers for days.
They’ve navigated in the pitch black through the vessel’s cramped passages filled with hazards as they attempt to recover bodies trapped within.
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The luxury boat is lying on its side at a depth of 160ft, and in the treacherous coastal waters some half a mile off Sicily since Monday morning’s sinking.
The eight divers from across Italy have so far found five bodies inside the vessel – with another person still missing.
Two of the bodies recovered were confirmed to be those of British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, 59, and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah.
The body of Canadian-Antiguan chef, Recaldo Thomas, was found in the open water on Monday and a seventh person remains missing.
The missing include Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy, and Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda.
It comes as…
Experts have told how the divers – who are going down to the wreckage at 10-minute intervals – will be traumatised by the arduous task and are risking their own lives.
The salvage teams began scouring the wreckage with remote controlled underwater vehicles just hours after the sinking, as of around 8am.
The robots can be used at depths of 300m and are equipped with “advanced technology to investigate the seabed and record videos and detailed images”, according to the Coast Guard.
Naval units and cave divers are also taking part in the search.
Fire crews described the operation as “complex”.
One person remains missing – with the search halting for the night until Thursday morning.
The Bayesian sunk at around 4am with 12 passengers and 10 crew on board.
Bertrand Sciboz, who runs a company specialising in shipwreck research and salvage, told the BBC: “For myself and for my team of divers, it’s always very difficult if you have to do this job.
Who was Mike Lynch?
FORMER billionaire entrepreneur Mike Lynch has been found today after a £14m luxury yacht capsized in a tornado off the coast of Sicily Monday morning.
The tech tycoon, dubbed “Britain’s Bill Gates”, was one of the 22 people sailing onboard the £166,000 a week vessel.
Lynch, 59, was a serial entrepreneur having founded and sold tech and software companies with one of his biggest being Autonomy Corporation.
He was also been involved in Invoke Capital and cybersecurity company Darktrace.
As well as being awarded an OBE for his services to enterprise in 2006.
Born in Ilford, Lynch had a firefighter father from County Cork and a nurse mother from County Tipperary.
Away from work, Mike was happily married to wife Angela Bacares and the pair had two children together.
Angela is among those who have been rescued on the superyacht.
In 2023, the Sunday Times rich list set the couple’s value at £852m.
But Mike was extradited to the US on fraud charges back in 2023 with a judge setting his bail at £79m.
Just weeks ago, Lynch was acquitted of criminal charges by a jury in San Francisco after a 12-year legal battle over the $11bn sale of his firm, Autonomy, to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
The doomed yacht, named Bayesian, is also said to be owned by the Lynch family.
“It’s always a big trauma,” he added, even if the divers are used to recover missions like this one.
Sciboz said it will be especially challenging to recover any missing passengers who were in the lower decks when the yacht sank.
“The worst thing in this case will be taking off all the debris just floating everywhere in the yacht.”
Phil Jones, of the UK-based search team Beneath the Surface, said the reason for the brief dive intervals is likely due to the “gas mixtures” used in the oxygen tanks – and will be part of a well-drawn plan to ensure safety.
He told The Sun: “It’ll all be down to depth.”
A hole was also being created in the hull to open up the wreckage a little more.
“Anyone who’s been on a boat or a yacht will know that the corridors and doors are quite narrow, anyway,” he said.
“And they are considerably more so under underwater.
“There’s going to be furniture and other kinds of debris lying around, possibly blocking doors.
“It’s gonna be a very difficult search inside the yacht itself.”
He continued: “I mean, you’re looking at the mast itself with the ropes and things like that, they can all be dangerous to divers.
“As soon as the diver gets down there everything is going to be methodical and for the divers’ safety.”
The recovery operation will enter its fourth day on Thursday.
Mr Jones, 36, from Trawden, Lancashire, explained those who survived the ordeal to be quickly rescued were lucky.
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“It all happened so quickly that I think unless you’re very close to an open exit it’d be very difficult then to escape,” he said.
“And I believe that some of them may have even been asleep.”
He added: “Normally, in underwater conditions you are looking at the first hour or so.
“Then it becomes a recovery operation.”
Salvatore Cocina, the head of Sicily’s civil protection agency, confirmed that searches had finished for the day on Wednesday and will resume on Thursday morning.
He confirmed that the whereabouts of the missing sixth person remains unknown.
Identities of the recovered bodies have not been confirmed by authorities, despite local and international media reporting some had been identified.
Body bags were seen being taken to the port of Porticello on Wednesday afternoon, with the process of bringing the fifth body to shore being described by Mr Cocina as “ongoing”.
He said there will be an investigation in due course, but the priority is finding the missing.
As the body bags were taken back to the port, dozens of emergency services staff were waiting, and one bag was seen being put in the back of an ambulance.
Inspections of the yacht’s internal hull took place on Wednesday morning.
A team of four British inspectors from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) also arrived in Porticello to look at the site of the sinking.
The MAIB is looking into what happened because the Bayesian was flying a British flag, it is understood.
The Italian coastguard said the MAIB is not involved in the search for the missing people and has not been requested to assist.
A helicopter was drafted in to help the search effort as divers from the local fire service entered the water with torches attached to their headgear.
A police boat and divers also entered the water on Wednesday afternoon.
Fire crews said they had been accessing the vessel through natural entrances, without making openings.
The 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.
Of the 22 on board, 15 – including Mr Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares – were rescued after escaping on to a lifeboat.
Survivors have been recuperating at a hotel complex in Porticello, where authorities were gathering witness statements.
The boat trip was a celebration of Mr Lynch’s acquittal in a fraud case in the US.
The businessman, who founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, was cleared in June of carrying out a massive fraud relating to its 11 billion US dollar (£8.64 billion) sale to US company Hewlett Packard.
The Financial Times reported that Mr Bloomer appeared at trial as a defence witness for Mr Lynch, while media reports suggest the pair are close friends.
In a separate incident, Mr Lynch’s co-defendant in his US fraud trial, Stephen Chamberlain, died after being hit by a car while out running in Cambridgeshire on Saturday.
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