Five Bodies Found by Divers in Sicily Yatch Wreck

Five bodies of passengers involved in the Sicily superyatch shipwreck have been found by divers, with one still missingDivers searching as questions intensified about why the vessel sank so quickly.

Rescue crews brought four body bags ashore at Porticello. Salvatore Cocina, head of the Sicily civil protection agency, said a fifth body had been located. Divers on-scene said they would try to recover it on Thursday while continuing the search for the sixth.

The Bayesian, a 56-meter (184-foot) British-flagged yacht, went down in a storm early Monday as it was moored about a kilometer (a half-mile) offshore. Civil protection officials said they believed the ship was struck by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout.

Fifteen people managed to escape in a lifeboat and were rescued by a nearby sailboat. The body of the ship's chef, Recaldo Thomas from Antigua, was recovered on Monday.

The search effort was largely driven by concerns for six missing passengers, including British tech mogul Mike Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter, and associates who had recently helped him win a U.S. federal fraud trial.

Lynch’s spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, investigators from the Termini Imerese Public Prosecutor’s Office were collecting evidence for their criminal investigation, which was initiated immediately after the incident, although no formal suspects have been publicly identified.

There are many questions about what caused the superyacht, built in 2008 by the Italian shipyard Perini Navi, to sink so quickly, especially since the nearby sailboat Sir Robert Baden Powell was mostly unaffected and able to rescue the survivors.

Giovanni Costantino, the head of The Italian Sea Group, which owns the shipbuilder, attributed the disaster to human error, stating that the sinking took 16 minutes. "The ship sank because it took on water. The source of the water will be determined by investigators," he told RAI state television after meeting with prosecutors.

Costantino referred to AIS ship tracking data, which showed that the Bayesian took on water for four minutes before a sudden gust of wind capsized it, causing it to continue taking on water. The ship briefly righted itself before ultimately sinking.

Was this simply the result of an unusual waterspout that tipped the ship, allowing water to flood in through open hatches? What was the position of the keel, which on a large sailboat like the Bayesian, may have been retractable to navigate shallower ports?

“There’s a lot of uncertainty as to whether it had a lifting keel and whether it might have been up,” said Jean-Baptiste Souppez, a fellow of the Royal Institute of Naval Architects and the editor of the Journal of Sailing Technology. “But if it had, then that would reduce the amount of stability that the vessel had, and therefore made it easier for it to roll over on its side,” he said in an interview.

The captain of the sailboat that rescued survivors said his craft sustained minimal damage — the frame of a sun awning broke — even with winds that he estimated reached 12 on the Beaufort wind scale, which is the highest hurricane-strength force on the scale.

He said he had remained anchored with his engines running to try to maintain the ship’s position as the forecasted storm rolled in.

“Another possibility is to heave anchor before the storm and to run downwind at open sea,” Karsten Bornersaid in a text message. But he said that might not have been possible for the Bayesian, given its trademark 75-meter (246-foot) tall mast.

“If there was a stability problem, caused by the extremely tall mast, it would not have been better at open sea,” he said.

Yachts like the Bayesian are required to have watertight sub-compartments designed to prevent a rapid, catastrophic sinking, even if some areas become flooded.

The underwater search continued under hazardous and time-consuming conditions. Due to the depth of the wreck, which necessitates special precautions, divers working in pairs could only search for about 12 minutes at a time. However, on Wednesday, reinforcements equipped with specialized gear to allow for longer dives arrived at the site.

In total, around 27 divers took turns, including four who previously assisted in the recovery after the 2012 Costa Concordia disaster off Tuscany. They referred to the Porticello wreck as a “little Concordia,” according to a statement from fire crews.

The limited dive time was partly intended to prevent decompression sickness, commonly known as "the bends," which can occur when divers stay underwater for extended periods and ascend too quickly, causing nitrogen gas dissolved in the blood to form bubbles.

“The longer you stay, the slower your ascent has to be,” explained Simon Rogerson, editor of SCUBA magazine. He suggested that the tight turnaround times indicate the operation’s managers were aiming to minimize the risks and recovery time after each dive.

“It seems they’re operating with minimal decompression time or very strict decompression limits, or they’re being extremely cautious,” he added.

Divers were also dealing with floating debris, limited visibility, and the weight of air tanks on their backs.

“We are trying to move forward in confined spaces, but any small obstacle slows us down,” said Luca Cari, spokesman for the fire rescue service. “An electric panel could delay us by five hours. These are not normal conditions. We’re operating at the edge of what’s possible.”

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