video ormeggio yacht

Video shows moments before superyacht went down in storm off Sicily

Newly released video captures a luxury superyacht being battered by a violent storm before it suddenly sank off Sicily with 22 people aboard Monday.

The grainy images obtained by NBC News and other outlets were recorded on closed-circuit television not far from where the Bayesian was anchored, about a half-mile from the port of Porticello, on Sicily’s northern coast .

The yacht's 250-foot mast, illuminated with lights and lashed by the storm, appears to bend to one side before it finally disappears and is replaced by darkness.

The speed with which a yacht built to handle the roughest seas capsized stunned maritime experts.  

“I can’t remember the last time I read about a vessel going down quickly like that, you know, completely capsizing and going down that quickly, a vessel of that nature, a yacht of that size,” said Stephen Richter of SAR Marine Consulting.

British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and five of the 22 other people who were aboard the 184-foot vessel remain unaccounted for and are believed to be trapped in the Bayesian’s hull, nearly 170 feet underwater.

Officials confirmed Monday that at least one person, the ship’s cook, had died.  

Superyachts like the Bayesian, which had been available for charters at a rate of $215,000 a week, are designed to stay afloat even as they are taking on water to give the people aboard a chance to escape, Richter said. 

“Boats of this size, they’re taking passengers on an excursion or a holiday,” Richter said. “They are not going to put them in situations where it may be dangerous or it may be uncomfortable, so this storm that popped up was obviously an anomaly. These vessels that carry passengers, they’re typically very well-maintained, very well-appointed.”

Built by Italian shipbuilder Perini Navi in 2008, the U.K.-registered Bayesian could carry 12 guests and a crew of up to 10, according to online specialist yacht sites. Its nearly 250-foot mast is the tallest aluminum sailing mast in the world, according to CharterWorld Luxury Yacht Charters. 

On Tuesday, Italian rescue workers resumed the search for Lynch and the five other passengers still missing: Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah; Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife; and Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife.

“The fear is that the bodies got trapped inside the vessel,” Salvatore Cocina, the head of civil protection in Sicily, told Reuters .

The Bayesian is owned by a firm linked to Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, who was one of the 15 people rescued Monday after it capsized.

“It’s extremely rare for a boat of this size to sink,” Richter said.

What’s not rare is the kind of storm that sank it , said Simon Boxall, senior lecturer in oceanography at Britain’s University of Southampton.

“People assume the Mediterranean is this rather calm and passive place that never gets storms and always blue skies,” Boxall said. “In fact, you get some quite horrendous storms that are not uncommon at this time of year.”

The president of Italy’s meteorological society has said Monday’s violent storm may have involved a waterspout, essentially a tornado over water, or a downburst, which occurs more frequently but doesn’t involve the rotation of the air.

Luca Mercalli, president of the Italian Meteorology Society, also said recent temperatures may have been a factor. 

“The sea surface temperature around Sicily was around 30 degrees Celsius [86 Fahrenheit], which is almost 3 degrees more than normal,” Mercalli told Reuters. “This creates an enormous source of energy that contributes to these storms.”

The Mediterranean sailing vacation was designed to be a celebration for Lynch, who two months ago was acquitted by a San Francisco jury of fraud charges stemming from the 2011 sale of his software company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion.

Prosecutors alleged that Lynch, dubbed “Britain’s Bill Gates,” and Autonomy’s vice president for finance, Stephen Chamberlain, had padded the firm’s finances ahead of the sale. Lynch’s lawyers argued that HP was so eager to acquire Autonomy that it failed to adequately check the books .

Lynch had taken Morvill, who was one of his defense attorneys, on the luxury trip. 

Chamberlain was not on the Bayesian.

In what appears to be a tragic coincidence, a car struck and killed Chamberlain on Saturday as he was jogging in a village about 68 miles north of London, local police said.

“Steve fought successfully to clear his good name at trial earlier this year, and his good name now lives on through his wonderful family,” Chamberlain’s lawyer, Gary Lincenberg, said in a statement .

Henry Austin reported from London and Corky Siemaszko from New York City.

Henry Austin is a senior editor for NBC News Digital based in London.

Corky Siemaszko is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital.

Daily Nautica

Yacht a fuoco al largo di Ostia: salvate le 11 persone a bordo – Il video

Ancora fuoco a bordo: un incendio ha distrutto uno yacht al largo di ostia. la guardia di finanza ha salvato le 11 persone a bordo, tra cui sei bambini.

DA CHIARIRE LE CAUSE

Argomenti: Incidenti

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Video: 6 of the best heavy weather sailing videos

• Harriett Ferris
• June 18, 2017

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Bayesian yacht sinking: Horror of those trapped in bedrooms described by former captain

LIVE – Updated at 11:14

A former captain of the Bayesian has described the terrifying obstacles facing those trapped in the cabins as the Bayesian superyacht overturned killing seven.

Stephen Edwards, who captained the Bayesian for five years until 2020, told The Telegraph : “Those who stayed curled up in bed were in the worst situation.

“The storm hit hard, placing them in the melee of flying furniture, glass and other items,” he said adding he had spoken to traumatised crew members.

“Inside the cabins, the only way to think of this is that people were lying in their beds one minute, and the next the room was on its side, totally dark, with the door now either in the floor or in the ceiling above.”

It came as divers race to retrieve Mike Lynch’s personal hard drives locked in a safe on the ocean floor, according to reports.

Italian newspaper la Repubblica reported that the tech billionaire, whose clients included MI5, the NSA and the Israeli secret service, didn’t trust confidential documents on the cloud and kept two encrypted hard drives in a safe which now lies 49 metres below sea level.

Italian navy recover video equipment

• Two encrypted hard drives of Mike Lynch remain 49m underwater locked in safe - report

Professor fears more deaths by ‘medicanes’ after Bayesian tragedy

Mike lynch’s yacht was ‘unsinkable’, says boss of company who built boat.

• Seven key unanswered questions around the sinking of the Bayesian

Mike Lynch net worth: How the billionaire made his money

Mike Lynch was frequently described as the Bill Gates of Britain for founding Autonomy – one of the biggest software firms on the planet

Former captain describes horror of those trapped in cabins

Stephen Edwards, who captained the Bayesian for five years until 2020, told the Telegraph that he had spoken to crew members onboard during the sinking who recounted the horrors facing those onboard.

He said: “The storm hit hard, placing them in the melee of flying furniture, glass and other items.

“Some had made it to the saloon at this point and they are the ones who survived, as their route outside would have been a little clearer.

“Inside the cabins, the only way to think of this is that people were lying in their beds one minute, and the next the room was on its side, totally dark, with the door now either in the floor or in the ceiling above.

“Cabinets crashed open as the catches were weak, resulting in glassware and crockery falling out. I’m told almost all the furniture broke loose inside the boat.”

Mike Lynch’s wife, along with 14 others, survived and were rescued by a nearby vessel that was unscathed.

Italian Navy divers have recovered video surveillance equipment from the wreckage of billionaire Mike Lynch’s Bayesian superyacht that could explain how it sank.

The British tech tycoon’s boat had been moored near the port of Porticello on 19 August when it sank during the early hours of the morning. It is now lying 50m below the surface.

Among those killed were Mr Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, who had been due to begin studying at Oxford University in September, as well as four other family friends and associates.

Divers hunting for clues on how Mike Lynch’s superyacht sank make discovery

What happens now weeks after tragic sinking?

Prosecutors are investigating the captain , New Zealander James Cutfield, and two crew members for possible responsibility in connection with the sinking.

Mr Cutfield is under investigation for possible manslaughter and culpable shipwreck charges. Tim Parker Eaton — the engineer who was in charge of securing the yacht’s engine room — and sailor Matthew Griffith — who was on watch duty on the night of the disaster — are now under investigation for the same possible charges, their lawyer said.

Chief prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio, who is heading the investigation, has said his team will consider each possible element of responsibility including those of the captain, the crew, individuals in charge of supervision and the yacht’s manufacturer.

Investigators are focusing on how a sailing vessel deemed “unsinkable” by its manufacturer, Italian shipyard Perini Navi, sank while a nearby sailboat remained largely unscathed. They added raising the Bayesian and examining the yacht for evidence would provide key elements to the investigation.

Maritime director of western Sicily, Rear Admiral Raffaele Macauda of the coastguard, could not confirm how long it would take to retrieve the shipwreck of the sunken yacht, adding recovering the fuel tanks was a “priority for us because it has environmental knock-on effects”.

Special forces divers and robots search Mike Lynch’s sunken Bayesian yacht for clues

Specialist military divers are currently searching the sunken Bayesian yacht for clues as to why it sunk in a freak storm off the coast of Siciliy, killing seven passengers.

British tech tycoon Mike Lynch’s boat had been moored near the port of Porticello on 19 August when it sank during the early hours of the morning, and is now lying 50 metres below the surface of the water.

About six divers from the Italian navy ’s Comsubin unit are investigating the superyacht for electronic equipment, which includes data storage and CCTV and to see if doors were left open during the storm.

Holly Evans reports:

Chris Morvillo and wife drowned aboard Bayesian

Italian authorities said the first post-mortem examinations on the victims had been carried out on US lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda . The results confirmed that the pair had drowned.

Morvillo was a partner at Clifford Chance, a white-collar law firm. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor who investigated the September 11 terror attacks, according to the New York Post .

Investigators hope to recover data on sinking of Bayesian

Navy divers recovered hard drives of the video surveillance system on board the Bayesian hopefully revealing the final moments before the tragic sinking of the superyacht.

In the engine room there were the hard disks that catalogued the parameters regarding the electric and thermal propulsion.

“We hope to be able to read something from the media”, an investigator told La Repubblica. They added “Unfortunately they are standard models that are not resistant to water and pressure”.

There was no black box on board the 700-tonne sailing vessel that sank in minutes. It was not required to have one, as it was not a commercial cruise ship.

'Mike Lynch files may be target for hostile spy agencies’

Divers are searching the sea floor for Mike Lynch’s high-tech hard drives before they can fall into enemy hands reports La Repubblica - Italy’s second-biggest newspaper.

Sources told the paper the disks held: “the great digital archive of the IT entrepreneur whose clients included the British MI5, the American NSA and the Israeli services”.

The Italian newspaper said the “super drives” are protected by “cutting-edge encryption”.

The Sun reported the drives now could be a target for the hostile spy agencies of Russia, China, and Iran as they seek to steal valuable secrets.

Autopsies reveal cause of death of US lawyer and wife onboard Mike Lynch’s superyacht

Autopsies have been carried out on a couple who drowned on Mike Lynch’s superyacht when it sank off the coast of Sicily last month.

Seven lives were lost when the British-flagged boat, called the Bayesian, went down in a freak storm while anchored near the Sicilian capital of Palermo on 19 August.

Darktrace to be taken over after Mike Lynch’s death

Darktrace shares are set to stop trading publicly at the end of September, after the company set a timetable for its blockbuster private equity takeover to be completed.

The private equity group Thoma Bravo struck an almost 5.31 billion dollar (£4.3 billion) deal to buy Darktrace in April.

Darktrace AI interrupts in-progress cyber-attacks in seconds, including ransomware, email phishing, and threats to cloud environments.

It marks one of the biggest take-private deals for a London-listed company in recent years, and will see Darktrace leave the FTSE 100 on October 1.

Poppy Gustafsson helped to set up the Cambridge-based company in 2013 alongside Autonomy founder Mike Lynch.

Mr Lynch, and his daughter Hannah, were among seven people to die after the Bayesian superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily last month.

Bodies flown back to UK on private planes - report

The bodies of Mike Lynch, his daughter Hannah, 18, and the other victims of the Bayesian disaster have been flown back to their families after their post-mortems, according to reports.

They were repatriated on private planes, with their private funerals expected to be held over the coming days, Italian media reports.

The British tech tycoon ’s boat had been moored near the port of Porticello on 19 August when it sank during the early hours of the morning . It is now lying 50m below the surface.

Among those killed were Mr Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, who had been due to begin studying at Oxford University in September, as well as four other family friends and associates .

Jonathan Bloomer, the international chairman of Morgan Stanley Bank; his wife Judith, a psychotherapist; Christopher Morvillo, a US lawyer; and his wife Neda, a jewellery designer also died in the sinking.

Also killed was the yacht’s chef, Recaldo Thomas, whose body was recovered floating near the wreckage.

Four victims found with carbon dioxide in lungs

Tech billionaire Mike Lynch, his daughter Hannah, 18, and five other people died when the Bayesian went down in a downburst, which is similar to a small tornado.

Chef Recaldo Thomas, Jonathan Bloomer, the Morgan Stanley International bank chairman, his wife Judy, and Chris Morvillo, a Clifford Chance lawyer, and his wife Neda, were the other victims of the August 19 tragedy.

Four of the victims are feared to have suffocated to death in air bubbles that filled with carbon dioxide, according to their autopsies raising the frightening possibility that they may have been conscious after the yacht sank, according to Italian news outlet La Republica.

Fifteen people, including Angela Bacares, Lynch’s wife, survived when they were rescued by a nearby yacht.

Giovanni Costantino, the chief executive of the Italian Sea Group, said there are no flaws with the design and construction of the Bayesian and it is “one of the safest boats in the world”.

The Bayesian, a 184-ft superyacht carrying 22 passengers and crew, was anchored off the port of Porticello, near Palermo, when it disappeared beneath the waves in a matter of minutes after a freak tornado struck.

“The ship sank because it took on water, from where investigators will have to say,” Mr Costantino told television news programme TG1.

He suggested that the sinking was down to a series of human errors.

The CEO said that had the crew shut all doors and hatches, turned on the engine, lifted the anchor, lowered the keel and turned the yacht to face the wind, they would have suffered “zero damage”.

He added that data showed it took 16 minutes from when the wind began for it to sink.

Cartoisio said the tragedy will be even more painful if the sinking was caused by “behaviours that were not aligned to the responsibilities that everyone needs to take in shipping”.

Bodies of Mike Lynch and daughter Hannah flown back to families after Bayesian superyacht sinking

The bodies of those who died after the billionaire Mike Lynch’s Bayesian superyacht sunk off the coast of Sicily have been flown back to their families by private jet.

Italian publication Giornale di Sicilia reported post-mortem examinations were completed at a Palermo hospital and the bodies have now been returned.

My colleague Tom Watling reports:

Bodies of Mike Lynch and daughter flown back to UK after Bayesian tragedy

Captain gives his account of tragic sinking

Captain James Cutfield previously gave his terrifying account before invoking his right to remain silent.

According to Correire, he told prosecutors: “Seaman Griffiths came to wake me up and told me that there were 20 knots of wind.

“I looked at the instruments and indeed that was the case. I went out immediately and asked them to warn everyone because I didn’t like the situation.”

He said the Bayesian tilted 45 degrees “and remained like that for a bit and then suddenly fell to the right.

“We were catapulted into the sea”.

Seaman Matthew Griffiths, 22, said: “We somehow climbed back up to the bridge and tried to form a human chain to save those who managed to reach that gap from the accommodation deck ... they were struggling on the walls because the boat was lying in the water.

“The first in the chain was the captain who stretched down. He helped everyone, the ladies, the mother with the little girl ... But we were sinking and unfortunately some didn’t make it .”

Mr Griffiths joins fellow Brit Tim Parker-Eaton, 56, and Kiwi skipper James Cutfield, 51, on the official list of those being formally investigated for shipwreck and multiple manslaughter.

Being investigated does not equate to being charged and is a procedural step.

Professor Yoav Yair, Dean of the School of Sustainability at Reichman University in Israel, told the Mirror that storms dubbed ‘medicanes’ - Mediterranean hurricanes - could cause similar sinkings like the Bayesian superyacht.

He said: “It is not a matter of if this (the Bayesian disaster) will happen again, but rather it’s when and where.

“In the last couple of years we have seen medicanes - which are a new phenomena. These are hurricane-like storms that pack a lot of energy, and create flash flooding, torrential rains, lightning, hail and severe sustained winds. The 2023 “Daniel” medicane destroyed Libya and caused over 30,000 deaths there.

“The sea surface temperature has risen globally and in the Med as well, charging the atmosphere with increased fluxes of water vapor, which means a higher potential for massive storms.”