the hypothesized errors – The Time

The engineer Tim Parker Eaton, English, head of the engine room of the Bayesian, is under investigation for complicity in the shipwreck and in the manslaughter of the seven people who lost their lives, which occurred on August 19 in the waters of Porticello, near Santa Flavia (Palermo). Together with him, the magistrates of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Termini Imerese (Palermo), are evaluating the positions of two other members of the crew: the first officer Tjis Koopmans, Dutch, and the sailor on watch on the bridge, Matthew Griffiths, also English. It has also been decided for them to be registered in the register of suspects, in view of the execution of the autopsies on the bodies of the seven victims: an obligation that is postponed day by day, hour by hour, in view of the definition of the list of suspects who have the right to appoint their own consultants in view of the performance of “unrepeatable acts” such as autopsy examinations.

Parker Eaton is accused of failing to check the operation of the safety devices that close the doors and activate the watertight compartments, avoiding flooding in particular of the engine room. The flooding would have caused a blackout in the mega-yacht, which was unable to activate the engines to react to the storm that had hit it 400 meters from the port of Porticello. The first officer is accused of failing to arrange, in conjunction with the commander James Cutfield, already under investigation, the devices necessary to avoid the shipwreck.

The sailor Griffiths, a 22-year-old Englishman, is under investigation and will also be charged with negligent shipwreck and multiple manslaughter: he allegedly failed to give the timely warning of the storm’s arrival, failing to activate the mechanisms necessary to avoid damage, with the closing of all the engine room doors of the British sailing ship Bayesian. The owner of Bayesian, billionaire Mike Lynch, also died in the maritime accident, along with his 18-year-old daughter Hannah.