Salvage teams successfully raised a superyacht from the seabed off Sicily on Friday, nearly a year after it sank during a violent storm that claimed the lives of British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and six others.
The 56-metre (185-foot) luxury vessel, named Bayesian, went down on August 19 last year after being struck by severe weather while anchored off Porticello, near Palermo. The yacht capsized within minutes, killing Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, and five other people.
According to an AFP photographer on site, the recovery operation brought the yacht up from around 50 metres below the surface. The salvage firm TMC Marine, leading the complex task, first removed the vessel’s towering 72-metre mast before lifting the yacht using a crane barge.
A preliminary investigation by the UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) indicated last month that the superyacht’s tall profile had generated “a degree of effective lift” in the wind, which contributed to the vessel leaning dangerously during the storm.
At the time of the disaster, 22 people were on board — 12 crew members and 10 guests. Lynch, 59, the founder of software company Autonomy, had gathered friends and family on board to celebrate his acquittal in a major fraud trial in the United States.
Italian prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation into the captain and two others, who are facing charges of manslaughter and negligent shipwreck.
The complex salvage operation, which started in May, faced setbacks after a diver involved in the effort tragically lost his life, briefly halting progress.
