A difficult search operation is faced by the Italian authorities, who have enlisted divers specializing in underwater caves in order to locate the 6 missing from the sinking of the ultra-luxury yacht off Sicily.
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Among the missing are the so-called “British Bill Gates”, Mike Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah and the chairman of Morgan Stanley International bank Jonathan Blumer .
Divers involved in the search operation say the £30 million vessel has rested on the seabed 50 meters below the surface with “almost everything intact”. However, the furniture hinders divers' efforts to enter its interior and search for passenger bodies.
Because the depth is great, each diver has 12 minutes to dive. According to Italian media, each diver can search the boat for about 10 minutes. So far the divers have worked on the outer part and the bridge of the yacht. They have not been able to see inside the vessel and are looking for a way to enter the interior. the sinking happened within minutes so there are fears that the 6 missing are trapped inside the boat.
The storm hit at 05:00 in the morning when all the passengers were sleeping in their cabins. Some went out on deck to see what was going on and so they managed to fall into the water and escape. A total of 15 people, including Mike Lynch's wife, were rescued from the wreck.
The ship's captain, James Catfield, was rescued and is being treated in a hospital near Palermo. He is in a state of shock and only managed to say one sentence to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica: “We didn't expect this to happen.”
Was the mast to blame for the sinking?
The ultra-luxury yacht was moored just outside the harbor off the coast of Porticello when it was hit by the storm.
According to eyewitnesses, its 11.51m aluminum mast, which was the tallest in the world, snapped in two. The scenario under consideration, according to maritime experts, is after it broke and capsized the yacht, which eventually drifted to the bottom.
Former shipyard manager and technical shipping inspector Gino Sciriazzi told the Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera that once the mast fell, the ship was much more prone to heeling and rolling as it was buffeted by the waves without the sails to steady it.
He explained that in the yacht's case the downpour was so violent that the boat , which had been dragged by its broken mast, leaned into the water until the edge of the deck slipped below the surface.
The sinking probably lasted only a few minutes and the yacht sank quickly as it took on water. .
