Firm that built superyacht Bayesian say ‘human error’ is to blame

The firm that built tech billionaire Mike Lynch’s superyacht, which sank off the coast of Italy, has dropped a bombshell.

The firm that built tech billionaire Mike Lynch’s superyacht Bayesian that sank off the coast of Sicily say “human error” is to blame.

On Thursday, the head of Italian Sea Group, Giovanni Cotantino, said the tragedy could have been avoided after the $58 million ship capsized in a water spout on Monday morning.

“Everything that was done reveals a very long summation of errors,” Mr Costantino said.

The company, which includes the Perini Navi company, built the luxury 56-metre yacht in 2008.

Mr Costantino told Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper that bad weather was forecast and all the passengers should have been gathered at a pre-arranged assembly point, with all the doors and hatches closed.

Italian Sea Group, Giovanni Cotantino said ‘human error’ is to blame for the tragedy.

Security camera footage of the ship from the shore showed the lights on its mast going out, which Mr Costantino said indicated a short circuit, meaning that the ship had already taken on water, AFP reported.

“A Perini ship resisted Hurricane Katrina, a category 5 (hurricane). Does it seem to you that it can’t resist a tornado from here?” he told the publication.

Mr Costantino said it was “good practice when the ship is at anchor to have a guard on the bridge, and if there was one he could not have failed to see the storm coming”.

“Instead it took on water with the guests still in the cabin. They ended up in a trap, those poor people ended up like mice in a trap,” he said.

A photo shows the Bayesian in Palermo, Italy, before it sank. Picture: Perini Navi Press Office

He also told The Sun modern sailing ships, especially high-tech ones like the Perini, are designed to be extremely safe and stable.

“Even in very critical conditions, if procedures are followed, a sailing yacht like the Bayesian will return to an upright position,” he said.

“However, if the ship takes on water, this stability is compromised.

“Where the water entered will be determined by the investigators.

“What is certain is that the ship took on hundreds of thousands of litres of water.”

He also disputed widely reported claims that the ship sank in just 60 seconds - instead saying logs show it took 16 minutes to go down.

Disturbing CCTV captured the moment the superyacht was swallowed by a tornado-like waterspout.

“The torture lasted 16 minutes. It went down, not in one minute as some scientists have said,” he told The Financial Times.

“It went down in 16 minutes. You can see it from the charts, from the AIS [Automatic Identification System] tracking chart.

“The captain should have prepared the boat and put it in a state of alert and of safety, just like the boat [the Sir Robert Baden Powell] anchored 350 metres away, which was built in 1957 and handled the [weather] event brilliantly.”

He claimed the Bayesian was “one of the safest boats in the world” and was virtually “unsinkable”, telling Italian publication Corriere della Sera: “The passengers reported something absurd, that the storm came unexpectedly, suddenly. That is not true. Everything was predictable.”

Divers have recovered five of the six missing passengers including British tech billionaire Mike Lynch. Picture: Vigili del Fuoco / AFP

Prosecutors in the town of Termini Imerese, close to Porticello, where the vessel went down, have opened an investigation into the disaster. They will seek to establish what caused the yacht to sink and whether any of the crew are criminally liable.

The body of billionaire tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch is among the five bodies divers recovered on Wednesday.

The 59-year-old was said to be trapped by two mattresses inside a cabin on the superyacht, according to Italian publication La Repubblica.

Italian officials said on Wednesday that they believed his 18-year-old daughter Hannah to be among those recovered, but she is now thought to still be inside the boat.

Fifteen people have been rescued, including Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, a mother with her one-year-old baby, and New Zealand captain James Cutfield who is recovering in hospital.

Mr Lynch and his wife Angela Bacare (together, above) who survived the tragedy.

Captain questioned

Prosecutors, who have been interviewing survivors from the tragedy, questioned Mr Cutfield for several hours about the disaster, Giornale Di Sicilia reported.

The 51-year-old, who managed to escape from the vessel, told Italian media, “We just didn’t see it coming”, when speaking of the abrupt nature of the water spout.

There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Mr Cutfield.

Mr Cutfield’s brother Mark told the NZ Herald his brother was a “very good sailor” and was “very well respected”.

He said he is currently in hospital but was not suffering from injuries “too dramatic”.

“He’s safe, he’s okay,” Mark said.

Mr Cutfield’s wife had flown from their home in Palma, Mallorca, to be by his side in Italy and has been updating his family back home in New Zealand.

Divers with a third body at the back of the boat on Wednesday. Picture: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP)

According to the NZ Herald, he had been a captain on luxury yachts for eight years and had previously been working on them and involved in building them for the past 30 years in various locations around the Mediterranean.

The publication reported that before Mr Cutfield worked for the British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, he had worked for a Turkish billionaire.

Mr Cutfield’s interrogation comes after divers found that the keel, a crucial part of the boat’s structure which helps keep it balanced, had been raised when the yacht was anchored off shore.

New Zealand captain James Cutfield, who survived the tragedy, was questioned for several hours by authorities as an investigation into what happened has been launched.

The keel operates as the main structural backbone of the yacht, filled with heavy materials, keeping it balanced and helping it to correct in stormy waters.

Dan Green, Research & Investigations lead at eSysman SuperYachts, told The Mirror that if the keel was raised it would harm the boat’s stability and could explain why it sank so quickly.

“The keel when lowered increases the stability of the vessel,” he said.

“When raised, this reduces stability as the centre of gravity is raised, as the keel is also weighted with lead.

“Another effect of the keel being in the up position is the vessel will not self-right if it leans far over.

“If you add to that the possibility of hatches being opened on the vessel that would explain why it’s saying [sinking] so quickly.”

The UK’s marine accident investigation branch also sent four inspectors.

Matthew Schanck, from the Maritime Search and Rescue Council, told AFP what happened was “pretty unprecedented” after the yacht was struck by a “black swan” waterspout during a storm.

UK meteorologist Peter Inness described a waterspout as a “narrow column of rotating air below a thunderstorm that occurs over water”.

Like tornadoes, they suck up air in a rotating motion. Many are fairly inconsequential, but some can pack winds of more than 100km per hour, Mr Inness said.

Jean-Marie Dumon, a former naval officer now with the GICAN, the French maritime industry association, added that conditions with winds of 100kph or more can “create completely anarchic sea conditions which can cause capsizing”.

- with AFP, The Sun