The body of the 18-year-old daughter of British technology magnate Mike Lynch—the last missing person from the shipwreck of the Bayesian superyacht that sank earlier this week—has been found, Sicilian authorities said Friday. Prosecutors are now exploring manslaughter charges as part of their investigation of the tragedy.
Hannah Lynch was scheduled to start at Oxford to study English next month after having completed her studies at the prestigious Latymer Upper School, where she was said to have been a standout student in literature and poetry.
“I’ve never taught someone who combined sky-high intellectual ability with warmth and enthusiasm in the way Hannah did,” wrote Jon Mitropoulos-Monk, head of English at Latymer, noting her fondness for Joyce, Faulkner, Conrad, and John Donne.
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Divers working at the seabed more than 150 feet underwater discovered that she was trapped, like other victims, inside one of the ship’s cabins. Investigators determined the victims likely raced desperately for air as the vessel capsized, climbing upward before becoming trapped, as they were found in different cabins than they were supposed to be sleeping in.
“They gasped for air until the last moment, then they were dragged down without hope,” a source told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.
The Bayesian, which was anchored off Porticello, a fishing village 10 miles east of the Sicilian capital Palermo, sank in the early morning hours on Monday morning when the area was hit by powerful storms.
Eighteen-year-old Hannah Lynch, whose body was found at the site of the Bayesian shipwreck Friday, was scheduled to matriculate at Oxford in September.
Handout/Lynch FamilyAuthorities are now probing whether Lynch, her father, and five other deceased victims, including Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer, could have been saved if not for a chain of human errors in advance of the disastrous shipwreck.
According to the Italian newspaper la Repubblica, investigators are looking at how the Bayesian’s crew responded to worsening sea conditions before the 180-ft sailing vessel sank in little more than a minute at 4:06 a.m. in the early hours of Monday.
The paper reported that the vessel’s captain, James Cutfield, was heard repeating “we didn't see the storm coming” when he was treated in hospital after the shipwreck.
However, la Repubblica reported that investigators have reviewed Automatic identification system (AIS) data that, along with witness interviews, suggests the crew had over 15 minutes to plan for and respond to the inclement weather, including rising wind and waves. “It was a fast but progressive worsening of the sea and wind conditions,” one source told the paper. The superyacht became unmoored and was overwhelmed by 100-mile-per-hour wind gusts.
“Everything that was done reveals a very long tally of errors,” Giovanni Costantino, the CEO of Italian Sea Group, which owns the shipyard where the Bayesian was built, told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. “The passengers should not have been in the cabins, the boat should not have been at anchor. And why didn’t the crew know about the incoming storm?”
Mike Lynch’s wife and Hannah’s mother, Angela Bacares, survived the shipwreck because she fled her cabin as conditions worsened.
A much smaller vessel anchored nearby, the Dutch sailboat Sir Robert Baden Powell, saved some of the survivors after finding them on a life raft.
The Termini Imerese Public Prosecutor’s Office is investigating multiple potential cases of manslaughter against unknown persons, according to the Italian news agency Adnkronos.
The agency also reported that the Italian Coast Guard has visited private homes and public places to retrieve any video evidence of the vessel and conditions in the area, which prosecutors are reviewing.
