Search for people trapped on sunken superyacht

PORTICELLO, Italy (AP) — Police divers resumed their search on Monday for six people trapped in the hull of a superyacht that sank in deep waters off Sicily, including a British technology tycoon celebrating his recent acquittal on fraud charges and his trial defense team.

The luxury boat is lying about 50 metres underwater off Porticello, near Palermo, a depth greater than most recreational divers are certified for and which requires special precautions.

Recovery teams were only allowed to stay for 12-minute shifts, a move that slowed their efforts to reach the narrow interior of the wreck.

The 56-metre (180-foot) British-flagged luxury yacht Bayesian was anchored about a kilometre (0.6 mile) off the coast when a storm hit just before 4am on Monday. Civil defence officials believe the vessel was hit by a waterspout or tornado over water that passed through the area and sank rapidly.

A grainy CCTV footage from land, posted on the Giornale di Sicilia website, showed the Bayesian’s majestic 75-metre illuminated mast weathering the storm and disappearing within a minute.

Fifteen of the 22 people on board survived, including a woman who held her one-year-old daughter in the water to save her.

A body was recovered, identified by officials as the Antiguan-born chef on board.

The rest of the 10-person crew survived, including the captain, whom prosecutors sought for questioning.

“It is a great, great tragedy,” said Britain’s ambassador to Italy, Edward Llewellyn, who visited Porticello on Tuesday.

Britain sent four investigators to the wreck site because the disaster involved a British-flagged vessel and British citizens were among those reported missing.

Fire officials said the other six people on board are considered missing until the remains are located. They include billionaire Mike Lynch, once regarded as Britain’s king of technology, who was acquitted in June of fraud and conspiracy charges in a U.S. federal trial related to the $11 billion sale of his company, Autonomy Corp., to Hewlett Packard.

Also missing are Christopher Morvillo, one of Lynch’s lawyers, and John Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International and a former chairman of Autonomy’s audit committee, who testified in Lynch’s defense.

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