Five Bodies Located After Superyacht Disaster in Sicily

Authorities in Sicily have located five bodies during rescue efforts after a superyacht sank in the Mediterranean Sea on Monday.

Rescuers were seen carrying four body bags ashore in the Italian city of Porticello, the Associated Press reported. A fifth body was also located the same day, Salvatore Cocina, the head of Sicily's civil protection service, told the news service.

A total of six people were reported missing after the disaster, leaving one person still unaccounted for.

Two of the bodies were identified as billionaire tech mogul Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, Britain's Daily Telegraph reported. The Italian press has not confirmed the deaths of either person.

Sources familiar with rescue efforts confirmed to The Independent that the bodies were found “behind two mattresses” inside the Bayesian by dive teams, which have worked in 12-minute shifts because of water pressure.

The Bayesian, an 184-foot sailing vessel, was struck by a waterspout and sank off the Sicilian coast around 5 a.m. Monday morning with 22 people aboard. That included Lynch, 59, as well as his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah.

Four others were said to be among the missing on Monday, including the Morgan Stanley chairman Jonathan Bloomer; his wife, Judy Bloomer; Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo; and his wife, Neda Morvillo. The body of the Canadian chef Recaldo Thomas was the first found on Monday.

A source told the Independent that one of the bodies appeared to be that of a “heavily built man.” Photos showed first responders carrying a green body bag. Fifteen people, including Lynch’s wife, survived the terrifying ordeal.

Salvo Cocina, president of the Civil Protection Agency in Sicily, told the Daily Mail that rescuers won’t rule out the possibility of air pockets keeping someone alive—even as that possibility feels more and more unrealistic.

“The divers have not yet reached the cabins, so we have not yet given up hope that there may be air pockets in their keeping them alive,” she said.

Lynch is said to have been on a celebratory trip with his legal team and loved ones after being acquitted in a U.S. fraud trial in June, which is why so many bankers and attorneys were aboard.

The yacht’s 51-year-old captain, James Cutfield, was reportedly interviewed by police for more than two hours on Tuesday evening. His brother has attested that the Bayesian tragedy has nothing to do with his Cutfield, reported the New Zealand Herald.

CCTV footage released Tuesday shown the Bayesian’s final moments afloat, with a Sicilian villa owner claiming that vessel disappeared entirely in less than 60 seconds—seemingly not enough time for everyone aboard to abandon ship.

“You can see the ship disappear,” he told Giornale Di Sicilia. “There was nothing that could be done for the boat. It disappeared in a very short time.”