PORTICELLO (Sicily, Italy), June 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Salvage workers raised a superyacht that sank off Italy during a pre-dawn storm last year, killing UK tech mogul Mike Lynch and six others.
The luxury 56-metre “Bayesian” was struck by a storm on Aug 19 when it was anchored off Porticello, near Palermo in Sicily.
It sank within minutes, killing Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah and five others.
The yacht, which was hit by something akin to a mini-tornado, was raised from the seabed — some 50 metres below the surface — on Friday.
TMC Marine, the salvage company overseeing the operation, cut off the yacht’s mast before lifting the vessel using a crane barge.
The Bayesian had an exceptionally tall mast, measuring 72 metres.
Investigators from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) — a UK government agency — said last month its profile “produced a degree of effective lift” that increased the boat’s lean in the wind.
When the yacht sank there were 22 people on board, including 12 crew and 10 guests.
Lynch, the 59-year-old founder of software firm Autonomy, had invited friends and family onto the boat to celebrate his recent acquittal in a huge US fraud case.
Italian prosecutors have launched investigations into the captain and two others on suspicion of manslaughter and the crime of negligent shipwreck.
The operation to recover the yacht began in May but was temporarily halted after a diver died. — NNN-AGENCIES