Manslaughter investigation of Mike Lynch’s superyacht Bayesian as black box reveals final minutes
Authorities are investigating whether the sinking of billionaire Mike Lynch’s superyacht was manslaughter, after new black box data revealed the final 16 minutes of “torture” onboard.
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A celebration on-board the superyacht of billionaire Mike Lynch — “Britain’s Bill Gates” — turned into 16 minutes of “torture”, after new black box data has revealed its final moments before it sank.
Data recovered from the Bayesian’s Automatic Identification System (AIS) has been analysed by police, who now know how the tragedy unfolded.
Italian authorities are investigating the sinking of the Bayesian which claimed the lives of Lynch, his daughter Hannah, 18, and five others.
The AIS tracking system sends information from on-board boats to coastal stations, alerting officials to movement and distress.
The black box data revealed at 3.50am on Monday the Bayesian shook “dangerously” during a fierce storm, Italian outlet Corriere reports.
Minutes later at 3.59am, the boat’s anchor gave way, with a source saying the data showed there was “no anchor left to hold”.
Once the boat’s mooring was ripped away in the bad weather, it was dragged some 358 metres through the water, and it began to take on water by 4am — an hour earlier than first reported.
The superyacht was then plunged into a blackout, suggesting water had reached its generator or engine room.
At 4.05am, the superyacht disappeared from the surface and an emergency GPS signal was sent at 4.06am to a coastguard station in Bari, to confirm it had sunk.
Chief Prosecutor of Termini Imerese Ambrogio Cartosio said investigators “cannot exclude anything at all” and that it “could be a question of homicide”.
“The Public Prosecutor’s Office of Termini Imerese has registered a file with the state against unknown persons, hypothesising the crimes of negligent shipwreck and multiple negligent manslaughter,” the state prosecutor told reporters.
“We feel close to the families, the families have undergone this loss,” he said.
“And what’s even more painful would be in fact if the development of the inquiry were to demonstrate that this tragedy, this terrible tragedy, was caused by behaviours that were not perfectly in order with regard to the responsibility everybody had.
“I’d like to officially communicate with you that the prosecutor has hypothesised that there could be in fact the question of homicide.
“But this is the beginning of the inquiry... We cannot exclude anything at all.”
The investigation is being centred on the crew’s responsibility and authorities want to “discover how much they (the crew) knew and to what extent all the people (passengers) were warned”.
Mr Cartosio called the disaster “a very serious tragedy” and said divers were “so professional and so courageous”. He said it was “clear people were trying to hide in cabins on the left hand side”.
Autopsies are yet to be carried out, and survivors will face more questioning about what happened.
Giovanni Costantino, CEO of Italian Sea Group which owns Bayesian-maker Perini Navi shipyard told the Financial Times: “The torture lasted 16 minutes.
“It went down, not in one minute as some scientists have said. It went down in 16 minutes.
“You can see it from the charts, from the AIS [Automatic Identification System] tracking chart.
Mr Constantino has blamed human error for the tragedy, saying: “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.”
The development comes after the Lynch family broke its silence.
“The Lynch family is devastated, in shock and is being comforted and supported by family and friends,” a statement released through a spokesman said.
“Their thoughts are with everyone affected by the tragedy.”
The sinking also claimed the lives of Mr Lynch’s business partner Jonathan Bloomer, 70, his wife Judy, 71, and Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo, 59, and his wife Neda, 57.
There were 15 survivors, including Mr Lynch’s wife and Hannah’s mother, Angela Bacares, 57.
Authorities are investigating the incident as possible manslaughter, known in Italy as “culpable homicide”.
The yacht was carrying 10 crew members and 12 passengers when it capsized.
“They would like to sincerely thank the Italian coastguard, emergency services and all those who helped in the rescue,” the Lynch family statement said.
“Their one request now is that their privacy be respected at this time of unspeakable grief.”
The family also released new photos of the father and daughter, who was hailed as one of the “brightest stars” of the “Latymer Upper School in West London”.
Hannah’s body was the last recovered from the wreckage on Friday, local time. She had just finished her end-of-school exams and had a place to study English literature at Oxford University.
Friends described her as warm, loving and “charming and ferociously intelligent”, according to one of the tributes issued by the family.
YACHT MAKER SAYS VESSEL ‘UNSINKABLE’
The CEO of the firm which built the doomed Bayesian superyacht has claimed the vessel is “unsinkable” after it plunged to the bottom of the Mediterranean on Monday killing six people with a seventh still missing.
Giovanni Costantino, boss at The Italian Sea Group, which in 2022 bought the company, Perini, that made the Bayesian, said boats built by his firms are “the safest in the most absolute sense”.
Speaking to Sky News, he said there are no flaws or mistakes in the design of the Bayesian which went down in a tornado-like storm off the coast of Sicily on Monday and sank within minutes.
In a separate interview with Italian TV, Mr Costantino he blamed “human error” for the yacht’s sinking.
“It drives me insane,” Mr Costantino said. “Following all the proper procedures, that boat is unsinkable.”
“Being the manufacturer of Perini [boats], I know very well how the boats have always been designed and built,” Mr Constantino said.
“And as Perini is a sailing ship … sailing ships are renowned to be the safest ever.”
He said the boats’ structure and keel make them “unsinkable bodies”.
Mr Costantino said news of the sinking “put me in a state of sadness on one side and of disbelief on the other”.
“This incident sounds like an unbelievable story, both technically and as a fact,” he added.
“The ship sank because it took on water. From where, the investigators will say,” he said.
“The dynamic of the sinking is seen and read from AIS (Automatic Identification System) data and lasted sixteen minutes.”
He suggested the boat had been taking on water and “all it took was another gust” to turn her over.
“She then straightened very briefly before going down,” he said.
The body of Canadian-Antiguan chef, Recaldo Thomas, was found in the open water soon after the disaster.
NZ CAPTAIN QUESTIONED
The yacht’s captain was interrogated for more than two hours by prosecutors who have opened an investigation into the shipwreck, according to reports.
James Cutfield, 51, who is from New Zealand, was questioned until late Tuesday night local time to help reconstruct what happened and provide useful technical details, reported the Italian news agency ANSA.
His brother Mark earlier told the New Zealand Herald he was a “very good sailor” and “very well respected” in the Mediterranean.
Magistrates are said to be also questioning the survivors inside the Domina Zagarella hotel in Santa Flavia, where they are staying.
DIVERS SEARCH MASTER SUITE
On Wednesday local time specialist divers searching for the missing people had reached the master cabin and had neared the yacht’s guest cabins.
The 55-metre Bayesian went down after it was struck by a tornado-like waterspout during extreme weather early on Monday morning and sank 50 metres to the bottom of the Mediterranean. Rescuers had struggled to get inside the wreck, cutting a hole in the hull of the yacht to access the yacht’s living room.
Authorities also deployed an underwater drone robot to assist in the search mission with pictures showing divers operating it from a boat on the surface.
The Italian coastguard confirmed they would be using a remote-controlled underwater vehicle (ROV).
It can remain underwater for up to seven hours at a depth of 300 metres, recording images and video that the team can use for search efforts and their investigation.
Rescuers had been hindered by the brief window of time they can be in the water, narrow entrances and floating debris on the boat as they battled to get inside the rooms in the search for the missing.
DID OPEN PORTHOLES DOOM SUPERYACHT?
Meanwhile, Italian authorities have opened an investigation into whether hatches left open by crew members on a luxury superyacht caused it to sink rapidly.
According to witnesses. the $27 million Bayesian “disappeared in 60 seconds” after being struck by a freak waterspout while it was anchored off the coast of Porticello in Sicily on Monday.
One expert at the scene said an early focus of the official investigation into the tragedy, launched by prosecutors in nearby Termini Imerese, would be whether the yacht’s crew had closed access hatches into the vessel before the storm struck.
Sailing expert Sam Jefferson, editor of magazine Sailing Today, also said that he believes open hatches and doors could have contributed to the rapid sinking of Mr Lynch’s superyacht.
“I would have said that the boat got hit very hard by the wind, it was pinned over on its side,” he said.
“I imagine all the doors were open because it was hot, so there were enough hatches and doors open that it filled with water very quickly and sank like that.”
Andrea Ratti, a nautical design professor at Milan Polytechnic University, said that a boat the size of the Bayesian would only sink so quickly by taking in a huge amount of water.
He suggested that portholes, windows or other openings may have been left open, letting in water.
Weather records show temperatures reached around 33 degrees the day before the sinking, which may have led to the vessel’s occupants wanting air to flow through while they slept.
Fifteen people were rescued after the boat sank but six remain missing.
HORRIFYING CCTV FOOTAGE SHOWS YACHT ‘DISAPPEAR’
Horrifying CCTV footage revealed the moment the Bayesian was engulfed by the storm that would eventually cause it to sink.
The new video shows the lights of the doomed vessel in the distance slowly disappear as it is swallowed by the heavy rain.
The new footage comes from the CCTV cameras just 200 metres from where the boat sank.
One witness said he looked at his cameras when he heard news of the sinking, according to Giornale Di Sicilia.
“In just 60 seconds — says the owner of the villa — you can see the ship disappear.
“Of about 20 cameras installed in the house, only one was not disturbed by the wind and rain. You can clearly see what is happening.
“There was nothing that could be done for the boat. It disappeared in a very short time.”
Originally published as Manslaughter investigation of Mike Lynch’s superyacht Bayesian as black box reveals final minutes
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