Sicily yacht sinking: Divers enter hull of boat as debris hampers search efforts

A team of four British inspectors from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) have arrived in Porticello where they are expected to look at the site of the sinking.

They are understood to have arrived on Tuesday and are expected to carry out a “preliminary assessment” of the site on Wednesday.

The MAIB is looking into what happened because the sailing yacht Bayesian was flying a British flag, it is understood.

The Italian Coastguard said the MAIB are not involved in the search for the missing people and that it did not request assistance.

Spokesman Vincenzo Zagarola said: “Even if they come (probably) the searches are carried out by the Italian authorities. Initiative (was) not requested by us.”

Inspections of the sunken yacht’s hull have taken place on Wednesday morning.

Search crews arrived at 6.30am local time (5.30am BST), with a boat carrying divers seen leaving Porticello at around 10.30am (9.30am BST).

Fire crews say they are accessing the yacht through natural entrances, without making openings.

Remotely controlled underwater vehicles are being used, with naval units and cave divers also taking part in the search, the Italian Coastguard has said.

The luxury Bayesian yach was the victim of “black swan event”, an unpredictable situation that caused the boat to capsize and sink.

Matthew Schanck says: “Looking at the extreme weather, if it was a waterspout, which it appears to be, it’s what I would class as like a black swan event.”

A black swan event is used to refer to a rare incident that is unexpected and unknowable, but often rationalised as being inevitable.

“Even outside of the maritime industry, all industries struggle with the black swan events,” Mr Schanck said.

The prestigious Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, where Hannah Lynch had been a pupil, has said they are all “incredibly shocked” after a yacht sank with her onboard.

A spokesperson said: “We are all incredibly shocked by the news that Hannah and her father are among those missing in this tragic incident and our thoughts are with their family and everyone involved as we await further updates.”

According to The Times, Hannah had just completed her A-Levels and gained a place to study English at Oxford, after winning a number of academic awards during her time at the school.

It was supposed to be a summer celebration.

British tech tycoon Mike Lynch had gathered his tried and trusted lawyers who had been with him every step of the way helping him emerge unscathed from a gruelling 13-year legal battle. Twelve guests had flown into the picturesque Italian port of Porticello, near Palermo from the UK, the US, Canada, New Zealand and Ireland, to mark the end of the fraud trial that had consumed much of their lives.

But now one person is dead and six more, including Mr Lynch, are missing with hopes fading for a successful rescue after the vessel capsized in during bad weather in the early hours of Monday morning.

Read the full article here:

A doctor who treated the 15 survivors of the Bayesian superyacht in the immediate aftermath of its sinking said that the injured spoke of “darkness” as the boat capsized.

Dr Fabio Genco described “apocalyptic scenes” as rescued guests and crew searched for their loved ones, while his main concern was treating the baby incase she had ingested saltwater.

“The word that the mother and all the injured kept repeating was the ‘darkness’ during the shipwreck,” he said.

“They spoke of about five minutes, from three to five minutes, from the moment the boat was lifted, raised by the waves of the sea until it sank.”

The brother of the Morgan Stanley chairman missing after a superyacht sank off Sicily has said he hopes air pockets could be keeping those alive.

Speaking to the BBC, Jeremy Bloomer, the twin brother of Jonathan, said his fingers were crossed.

He said: “It’s a slow process and it will take time. So there might be air pockets, but we don’t know. It’s still wait and see, so fingers crossed.”

The search for British billionaire Mike Lynch and his daughter has entered a crucial stage after the businessman’s yacht sank following a tornado off the coast of the Sicilian capital Palermo.

The Independent explains everything we know so far:

The wife of British billionaire Mike Lynch has sought refuge with other survivors in a hotel, which is just a six-minute drive from Porticello harbour, near to where the boat sank.

A hotel guest told The Mirror that the mother is in a very distressed state as she waits for updates on whether her husband and daughter Hannah, 18, are alive.

Angela Bacares made it to safety along with 15 other passengers after a violent storm truck just after 4am on Monday, consuming her sailing yacht Bayesian amidst a tower of tornado-waterspouts.

The 57-year-old described how she was woken early that morning after the boat “tilted” sharply, and after initially thinking nothing was wrong found herself showered in broken glass, according to Italy’s La Republica.

She then fled from her cabin – slicing her feet on the broken glass scattered across the deck – and safely made it off the boat as it vanished beneath the waves within minutes.

A friend of Mike Lynch has described him as a “very easy person to talk to”, with a “nice sense of humour”.

Richard Smith, who lives near Mr Lynch in the Suffolk village of Pettistree, told the BBC: “He is so approachable and a very easy person to talk to. A nice sense of humour. You might think with all that money that he would be a difficult person to talk to, but in fact he was a very easy person to talk to.”