Bodies recovered from sunken yacht identified by Italian authorities
British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch has been confirmed as among the dead after a superyacht sank off Sicily this week.
The Italian coastguard also said the bodies of Morgan Stanley chairman Jonathan Bloomer and US lawyer Chris Morvillo had been recovered, along with their wives, Judy Bloomer and Neda Morvillo.
Mr Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah remains missing.
Superyacht search – follow latest
Recaldo Thomas, the yacht’s chef, also died and was found soon after the vessel sank early Monday morning.
The confirmation of identities comes as another victim was brought up from the wreck in a blue body bag on Thursday, after divers recovered four yesterday.
Mr Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, is among 15 survivors, as is a British woman who survived with her baby because they were sleeping on deck.
The body of Canadian-Antiguan chef Recaldo Thomas was recovered soon after the sinking
Six people were originally missing when the UK-flagged Bayesian capsized during a storm.
The ship is now at a depth of around 50m (164ft) off Porticello near Palermo, where it had been anchored.
Jonathan Bloomer was chairman of Morgan Stanley International and Hiscox. Pic: Hiscox/Linkedin
Christopher Morvillo was a lawyer who worked on Mr Lynch’s fraud case. Pic: Clifford Chance
Divers have said navigating the wreck is hard due to debris, darkness, narrow spaces and only a 12-minute window on each descent.
The search will now focus on finding the one person still unaccounted for, Hannah Lynch
Divers have recovered five bodies from the wreck in the last 24 hours. Pic: Reuters
Lynch’s friend: ‘We were all hoping for a miracle’
Her 59-year-old father was nicknamed the “British Bill Gates” and had been in the headlines over a high-profile fraud case in the US.
In June, he was cleared of all charges related to the sale of his software company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
He could have spent years in jail but was instead celebrating his freedom along with friends including Christopher Morvillo, a lawyer who worked on his case.
David Tabizel, Mr Lynch’s co-founder at Autonomy, said: “It looks like we’ve lost our dear Dr Mike Lynch. RIP. The world has lost a genius. His family have lost a giant of a man.”
As investigators look into how the sinking happened, the boss of the company that built the Bayesian told Sky News superyachts of that type are “unsinkable”.
Read more:
Why search of yacht wreck has been so difficult
Who was on the superyacht that sank?
Pic:Perini Navi/The Italian Sea Group
Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, said there were no flaws with the design and construction.
“This incident sounds like an unbelievable story, both technically and as a fact,” he said, adding their structure and keel made them “unsinkable bodies”.
Meanwhile, the brother of the man in charge of the yacht has said he is a “very good sailor” and “well respected”.
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New Zealander James Cutfield, 51, was captain of the Bayesian and – in reference to the extreme weather – previously told Italian media “we didn’t see it coming”.
His brother Mark said he was a “well respected” mariner who had captained luxury yachts for eight years and previously worked for a Turkish billionaire.
He told the New Zealand Herald he’d been involved in building yachts for 30 years and also raced dinghies competitively in his youth.