superyacht go crash

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Video: Turquoise superyacht Go collides with Sint Maarten dock

The 77 metre superyacht Go has been filmed colliding with the wooden dock of the Sint Maarten yacht club in the Caribbean.

Onlookers filmed the flagship of Turkish yard Turquoise Yachts crash into the dock as it was leaving Simpson Bay Lagoon from its berth in Ile de Sol Marina.

The collision, which took place at around 10.15am on Wednesday morning, was caused by a computer malfunction on board, according to local newspaper The Daily Herald .

The Daily Herald reported that the yacht collided with the wooden docks twice before returning to its berth. No injuries were reported.

Sint Maarten Yacht Club general manager Michele Korteweg told The Daily Herald : “We’ve been removing all the debris and out insurance person has already been here to assess the damage.”

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Superyacht crash video shows 77m Go colliding with Caribbean dock

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Footage has emerged of a 235ft superyacht crashing into a luxury Caribbean yacht club’s pier, causing visible damage to both the yacht and the dock.

Onlookers were shocked last week (February 24) when a 235ft (77m) superyacht collided with the dock of Sint Maarten Yacht Club in the Caribbean.

Video footage of the incident shows the extent of the damage – while the pier took the brunt of it, the superyacht’s steel hull didn’t come off unscathed.

Computer malfunction was to blame for the sickening superyacht crash, according to local publication The Daily Herald , which adds that no-one was injured as a result.

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The incident took place at around 1015 local time and the newspaper added that an insurer had already been to assess the extent of the damage by the end of the day.

If you think you’re having a bad day at work, spare a thought for the captain and crew who had to explain this situation to their yacht’s owner.

Launched by Turkish yard Turquoise Yachts in 2018, Go features a helipad, gym, jacuzzi, beach club, sauna and hospital as well as a master suite and eight guest cabins styled by London-based studio H2 Yacht Design.

She is run by a crew of up to 18 and her twin 2,575hp Caterpillar 3516C engines give her an estimated top speed of 17 knots.

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• Mar 4, 2021

Captain Makes Clutch Decision to Save Superyacht 'GO' in St. Maarten's Crash

By: Scott Way

Last week the brilliantly turquoise superyacht GO made headlines for crashing into St. Maarten's Yacht Club. Not once, but twice.

Naturally, internet 'experts' were quick to pounce. With a predictable lack of knowledge, many immediately labeled the crash the result of driver error. Surely no captain could crash one of the world's nicest boats into one of yachting's most famous ports. What the videos lack, like most viral phenomena, is context. The captain of GO was recently interviewed by The Daily Herald to discuss the circumstances surrounding the incident. Predictably, there was far more at play than operator error. If you haven't seen the videos, here's a few different angles of the mishap:

As for the vessel in question, the boldly turquoise GO is a 77m (252 ft) luxury motor yacht designed by H2 and built by the aptly named Turquoise Yachts . It is owned by Capri Sun mogul Hans-Peter Wild . Yes, that Capri Sun, the lovable juice in a bag with the world's most challenging straw. It is entirely computer-driven and packed with deluxe appointments including a pool, jacuzzi, elevator, gym, helipad, and steam room. She runs with a crew of 19 and has 7 cabins for up to 12 guests. It was built in Turkey and launched in 2018 with a pricetag of roughly $100 million USD.

As for the events that transpired, captain Simon Johnson was preparing to depart the lagoon via the rotating land bridge (which you can see in the upper frame of the second video). While roughly 50 metres from the bridge and holding position pending the bridge opening, an electronic error began pushing the yacht forward without steering input. The passage itself is precarious enough as GO carries a 13.5 meter (44 ft) beam and has only 50 cm (1.6 ft) of clearance on either side.

Johnson told The Herald , “With not much water between us and the bridge, I always set to align my stern and get parallel well in time for the bridge opening. We left the dock an hour before and went through all the checks. There was nothing different from the other times we’ve done this exit. I was in good shape."

“Then, when we were about 50 metres away and holding position, the yacht started moving mysteriously forward. There was nothing I seemed to be able to do; all the controls on the bridge were showing normal. I called the engine room and everything was normal down there. I found I had extremely limited control, almost limited to only the bow thruster, but with now only 50 metres between us and the bridge I had to make a decision fast."

The ability to prioritize outcomes while under duress is a valuable trait, and the sign of a good captain, and Johnson was able to calculate a remarkable list of outcomes before choosing a course of action.

“I certainly did not want to put the anchor down. That would have been disastrous. By the time the anchor hit the bottom we would have been 30 metres further in. Then we would have pinned the bow upwind, and slewed the stern towards the rocks and the road bridge.

“We have 160,000 litres of fuel on board. If I had done that, I would not only have disabled the bridge, but potentially breached the hull on the rocks beneath and could have caused an oil spill. My preferred option was to point the bow towards the yacht club dock, and beach her gently there. I had a crew member up front shouting a warning to make sure everyone was out of the way.”

After some initial investigation, it was determined Johnson had 13 roughly seconds to choose a course of action. Having made the passage at St. Maarten's 20 times previously, his knowledge of the boat and the lagoon was undoubtedly valuable.

“The fact that there were no warning alarms, no lights on board to indicate something was wrong was really scary. I know this yacht so well, yet I had 13 seconds to make a decision before hitting the bridge. The decision I made was one I would make again if faced with the same circumstances.”

While internet critics were quick to heap blame upon him, Johnson was justifiable in his criticism of the electronics responsible, calling them “ridiculously over the top” and without manual overrides. On GO in particular, there are 14 computers on the bridge with two more below decks. Insurers will now have the tall task of determining the root of the electronic fault, as well as assessing the extent of the damage to GO and the Yacht Club dock before pursuing repairs.

As for Johnson, “I’m proud that we walked away from a crash landing, and most importantly, there was no injury and the island’s arterial road bridge was not compromised,” he said.

The yacht's owner Hans-Peter Wild was also supportive, releasing a public statement in which he declared he is “extremely supportive of the captain’s decisions and performance. Personnel, economic, environmental disaster was averted for the island. I have full faith and confidence in the captain and am very grateful.”

You can see more photos of the impressive GO below:

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Captain of Runaway Vessel ‘GO’ Explains the Crash

Last Friday we brought you footage of the motor yacht GO driving into the docks at St. Maarten. Today we bring you an update. According to the a report in the island’s local newspaper, The Daily Herald , the incident was caused by a computer malfunction that locked the vessel into gear, leading its captain, Simon Johnson, to choose “a deliberate impact with the St. Maarten Yacht Club wooden dock.”

Captain Johnson has driven GO 28,000 miles during his three and a half years with the vessel, and wanted to “set the record straight.” He described the moments that led to the crash and said the vessel started to  malfunction just before they were to pass through the arterial road bridge: “There was nothing I seemed to be able to do; all the controls on the bridge were showing normal. I called the engine room and everything was normal down there.”

The Herald states that GO is “the widest yacht to date to come through the bridge with just 50 centimetres [approximately 19″] of space on each side left to pass.”

“I found I had extremely limited control, almost limited to only the bow thruster, but with now only 50 metres between us and the bridge I had to make a decision fast,” Captain Johnson added.

At this stage GO remains at the dock while waiting for the final assessments and repairs to be completed.

You can read the full story here .

As a licensed electrical engineer and mariner I was fascinated by this accident and pretty much knew what the likely cause of the accident was before reading the full account. I helped an owner with the delivery of his 1 year old Nordhavn 63 from Cabo to San Diego in 2016 with the purpose of the trip to take the boat back to the manufacturer for warranty work. The two major problems were a hydraulic failure that caused loss of steering and $50K of navigation gear that was inoperable. The boat was a marvel of marine engineering but the complexities of the systems aboard made me shake my head in awe. It was an easier boat to maneuver than my 36′ cutter with the computer control of the engines and thrusters. BUT you had to wonder what would happen if there was a glitch in the software. Unlike aircraft that are fly-by-wire the testing of yachts is much, much less stringent than required by the FAA. Expect more interesting videos like this and good on L38 for telling us the rest of the story. BTW, having read the full article it sounds like the pilot…er captain did a great job in dealing with the situation. Bravo to him and here is a toast to the K.I.S.S. principle.

As a guy who has piloted more than my share of both commercial boats and airplanes, I think that trying to pass a superyacht through a bridge with only 19 inches of clearance on each side while subject to wind and tides is just asking for trouble. I am a firm believer in “what can go wrong, will go wrong”.

Funny how this malfunctions occur after an accident, and not anytime during the other 3 years / 22,000 miles this Captain was on this ship safely out at sea.“Computer malfunction” seems unlikely to me. The only evidence of this is from the Captain who crashed it while making a seemingly I’ll-advised difficult pass-through. No diagnostics. No investigation report of yacht systems. No witnesses. And no similar reported “computer malfunctions at any other time – except after a crash.

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By SuperyachtNews 25 Feb 2021

77m Go crashes into dock in St. Maarten

Reports suggest the yacht lost its steering as it was leaving its berth in simpson bay….

Videos have emerged of the 77m motoryacht Go crashing into a dock in Simpson Bay, St Maarten at a slow speed.

Local reporting has attributed the incident to a computer malfunction on board, which allegedly caused the yacht to lose its steering as it was attempting to exit the Simpson Bay Lagoon from its berth at the Yacht Club Isle de Sol marina on Wednesday morning.

The yacht then collided with the wooden dock at St. Maarten Yacht Club. Nobody was on the dock at the time and no injuries have been reported.

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Captain of ‘GO’ opens up on mega yacht’s unexplained malfunction

Captain Simon Johnson on the bridge of the mega-yacht “GO”. (Robert Luckock photo)

~ “I am proud that we walked away from a crash landing.”  ~

SIMPSON BAY--Captain of the 77-metre-long mega-yacht GO Simon Johnson has sought to dispel rumours, answer critics and set the record straight in an exclusive interview with The Daily Herald, by describing the moments prior to the yacht’s sudden control malfunction in the crucial minutes of the line-up procedure to exit Simpson Bay Lagoon on Wednesday, February 24.

  He says the incident has inevitably brought his competence into question.

  The ultra-modern yacht built in Turkey in 2018 is entirely computer-driven, yet for all the latest electronics and a bridge brimming with computer screens and displays, the software apparently failed the British captain at the worst possible moment, leading to his choosing a deliberate impact with the St. Maarten Yacht Club wooden dock. 

  A second run-in to the dock was caused by, yet again, a computer miscommunication between the bridge and engine room in a bid to regain control.

  Johnson confirmed that the yacht’s insurance assessors are progressing well in their survey of all the damage sustained to the boat, which is minimal, and the dock, and are engaged to set things right.

  That said, the root causes of the malfunction have not yet been definitively identified and an intensive investigation is underway while the yacht remains at Ile de Sol Marina. 

  Johnson has defended his unblemished record as a captain and his split-second decisions that averted a far worse disaster. Like an airline pilot reacting to something unexpectedly going wrong mid-flight, Johnson was faced with a similar predicament, the difference being there are 400 souls at stake sitting in a plane at 30,000 feet. 

  In some ways, Wednesday’s extraordinary incident was Johnson’s “Miracle in the Lagoon” moment. There were no injuries, no lives lost, there was no oil spill, and the bridge was still intact.

  “I’m proud that we walked away from a crash landing, and most importantly, there was no injury and the island’s arterial road bridge was not compromised,” he said.

   GO’s width is 13.5 metres, the widest yacht to date to come through the bridge with just 50 centimetres of space on each side left to pass ( Limitless is 12.5 metres wide). In that sense, lining up absolutely correctly is key. GO has passed through the bridge in St. Maarten perhaps 20 times unscathed, always with a well- trained crew.

  “With not much water between us and the bridge, I always set to align my stern and get parallel well in time for the bridge opening,” he explained. “We left the dock an hour before and went through all the checks. There was nothing different from the other times we’ve done this exit. I was in good shape. The wind was a brisk 24 knots and we were being pushed towards the bridge. I am familiar with this manoeuvre even in even stronger winds.

  “Then, when we were about 50 metres away and holding position, the yacht started moving mysteriously forward. There was nothing I seemed to be able to do; all the controls on the bridge were showing normal. I called the engine room and everything was normal down there.

  “I found I had extremely limited control, almost limited to only the bow thruster, but with now only 50 metres between us and the bridge I had to make a decision fast. 

  “I certainly did not want to put the anchor down. That would have been disastrous. By the time the anchor hit the bottom we would have been 30 metres further in. Then we would have pinned the bow upwind, and slewed the stern towards the rocks and the road bridge.

  “We have 160,000 litres of fuel on board. If I had done that, I would not only have disabled the bridge, but potentially breached the hull on the rocks beneath and could have caused an oil spill. My preferred option was to point the bow towards the yacht club dock, and beach her gently there. I had a crew member up front shouting a warning to make sure everyone was out of the way.” 

  Johnson said he is deeply upset by the incident, but not concerned for his own record. He has done 28,000 miles on GO during his 3½ years as its captain. He has been in the business for 40 years, 35 as a captain, visited 276 ports on GO alone, and often manoeuvred her in the tightest places.

  “I’m very proud of my handling of yachts,” he stressed. “My biggest concern was not to stop the activity of the island, which I am very fond of, by taking out the bridge. I used to live here and have many friendships over the years.

  “The fact that there were no warning alarms, no lights on board to indicate something was wrong was really scary. I know this yacht so well, yet I had 13 seconds to make a decision before hitting the bridge. The decision I made was one I would make again if faced with the same circumstances.”

  Insurance assessors have arrived, as well as control systems people. The investigations are ongoing as to how an engine can be locked into gear, and why it never showed up. New parts are being flown in. Johnson indicated the investigation should be concluded by the end of this week.

  “We will not leave this dock until Lloyds Insurers approves the repairs and then we will have to do a sea trial to check all the systems. (I might not be at liberty to share a conclusion yet with these investigations ongoing, but it is looking like a computer malfunction seized us into gear). We are of course confident this will be solved.”

  He criticised modern electronics as getting “ridiculously over the top” with no manual overrides or back-ups if something goes wrong. GO has 14 computers on the bridge and two more below decks.

  “Questions have to be asked in this industry about what’s going on; who is building these boats, who is designing them, who is supervising them, and why we aren’t being asked what we (captains) need to operate them,” he said. 

  The owner of GO released the following statement: “The owner is extremely supportive of the captain’s decisions and performance. Personnel, economic, environmental disaster was averted for the island. I have full faith and confidence in the captain and am very grateful.” 

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Daily Nautica

The mega yacht, “GO” crashes against a pier. The video

The 77-metre mega yacht, “go”, launched in 2018, crashed against a wooden pier in the sint maarten yacht club in the caribbean. the accident was caused by a malfunction of the onboard electronic systems.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS – GO

Topics: sint maarten yacht club accident

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NEWS... BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT

Passengers scream as superyacht worth £95m crashes into smaller boat

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This is the shocking moment a £95 million superyacht crashed into a smaller boat with at least six people on board.

Footage shows the 232 ft boat named Ice gliding through the water as it heads towards another boat off the coast of Yalıkavak, Turkey on Saturday.

Passengers on the smaller boat can be heard screaming as the superyacht sails towards them.

The vessel’s bow then crashed into the stern of a 101ft motor yacht carrying at least half a dozen people.

It is unclear why the collision occurred, but has been reported that at least half a dozen people were on the smaller boat at the time.

The boat suffered major damage at the stern but no onboard was injured.

The superyacht is part of the Lürssen shipbuilding company and can hold 14 guests and 27 crew members.

Features include a large helipad, beauty salon and bathtubs carved out of solid limestone.

There is also a state-of-the-art gym, jacuzzi and countless lounge and relaxation areas, both in- and outdoors.

The Coast Guard has launched an investigation into the incident.

In June two boats were involved in a devastating crash and a sailor was thrown overboard during a yacht race.

A man was flung from a boat as competitors battled rough seas during the Round the Island Race in the Isle of Wight today.

He then desperately clung onto his life jacket before being rescued.

The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) rushed to his aid to pull him from the water despite the extreme conditions.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected] .

For more stories like this, check our news page .

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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.

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Chilling footage shows bayesian superyacht slowly disappearing from view during raging storm.

Security camera footage from 650 feet from where the Bayesian superyacht sank Monday shows it slowly disappearing.

In the chilling video, the lights from the boat go out of view as the storm rages.

A witness told Giornale Di Sicilia that they rushed to watch the tape after learning about the ship.

What to know after a tornado sank the yacht Bayesian off the coast of Sicily:

• A superyacht capsized off the coast of Sicily after a tornado hit the area early Monday, killing seven passengers.
• British tech tycoon Mike Lynch was identified as one of the bodies pulled from the wreckage. His teenage daughter, Hannah, was the final one to be recovered.
• Lynch — known as “Britain’s Bill Gates” — had invited guests from Clifford Chance, a legal firm that represented him, and Invoke Capital, his own company, on the voyage,  according to the Telegraph . 
• Security camera footage shot from 650 feet from where the  Bayesian sank Monday  shows it disappearing.
• A rare and unexpected “black swan” weather event may have led to the  Bayesian’s speedy demise , maritime experts say.

“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,” the witness said.

“There was nothing that could be done for the boat. It disappeared in a very short time.”

Who was on superyacht that sank off Sicily?

Twenty-two people were on board the Bayesian superyacht including British technology tycoon Mike Lynch, his wife and 18-year-old daughter, and Morgan Stanley International boss Jonathan Bloomer.

Friday 23 August 2024 12:34, UK

Details have emerged of the 22 people who were on board the superyacht that sank off the coast of Sicily.

The British-flagged vessel named Bayesian was carrying 12 passengers and 10 members of crew when it got into difficulty in the early hours of Monday.

Seven bodies have now been recovered. The other 15 people on board were rescued.

Here's what we know about those who were on the yacht.

Follow latest updates on the superyacht sinking

British technology tycoon Mike Lynch was among the original six people missing. On Thursday, divers confirmed his body had been recovered.

Raised in Ilford, east London by Irish parents, the 59-year-old made millions with the software company Autonomy he set up in 1996.

He had an estimated net worth of £852m, according to the 2023 Sunday Times Rich List, and is believed to have owned the yacht.

Off the back of Automomy's global success, Mr Lynch was given the roles of science adviser to former prime minister David Cameron and non-executive director of the BBC.

The Cambridge maths and sciences graduate sold the firm for £8.64bn to US giant Hewlett Packard (HP) in 2011.

Dubbed the "British Bill Gates", Mr Lynch has been in the headlines in recent months over a high-profile fraud case related to the sale of Autonomy to HP in 2011.

HP accused him of deliberately overstating the value of the company before it was acquired by the American technology firm. Mr Lynch denied any wrongdoing.

In June, a US jury cleared him of all charges .

Read more: Lynch's co-defendant dies days before yacht disaster

Hannah Lynch

Mr Lynch's 18-year-old daughter Hannah Lynch was also on board. A body believed to be that of the teenager was recovered on Friday from the yacht wreckage.

She had been on holiday with her parents, having secured a place to study English at the University of Oxford, according to reports.

Her former school, Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, west London, said they were "incredibly shocked by the news that Hannah and her father are among those missing in this tragic accident" when the yacht first sank.

Angela Bacares

Mr Lynch's wife Angela Bacares was on board the yacht and was rescued.

The 57-year-old said she and Mr Lynch were awoken by the boat "tilting" at 4am - half an hour before it sank.

Jonathan Bloomer

Jonathan Bloomer, the chairman of investment bank Morgan Stanley International, was confirmed dead on Thursday.

According to the Financial Times, Mr Bloomer appeared as a defence witness for Mr Lynch during his US criminal trial and the pair were good friends. He also chaired Autonomy's audit committee.

The 70-year-old was the chief executive of UK-Hong Kong insurer Prudential until he was ousted by the board in 2005.

He was also chairman of the insurance provider Hiscox.

Judy Bloomer

Mr Bloomer's wife Judy was on the yacht trip with her husband. Divers confirmed they found her body on Thursday.

Mrs Bloomer was a former board member at The Eve Appeal charity, which focuses on gynaecological cancers.

The charity described her as a "brilliant champion for women's health and medical research... an incredible supporter, committee member, and trustee of our charity for over 20 years".

Read more: 'Alarming' potential cause of superyacht disaster What we know about superyacht that sank

Recaldo Thomas

The yacht's on-board chef Recaldo Thomas died in the sinking.

He was Canadian-Antiguan and part of the crew of the Bayesian.

His body was the first to be recovered from the wreckage.

Chris Morvillo

US lawyer Chris Morvillo was among those divers found dead on Thursday.

The father-of-two worked on Mr Lynch's US fraud trial and was a partner of law firm Clifford Chance's US branch.

Mr Morvillo was assistant attorney for the Southern District of New York between 1995 and 2005 and worked on the terrorist investigation into the 9/11 attacks.

In a recent LinkedIn post, he thanked the legal team that helped win Mr Lynch's trial.

Signing off the post, he said: "And, finally, a huge thank you to my patient and incredible wife, Neda Morvillo, and my two strong, brilliant, and beautiful daughters, Sabrina Morvillo and Sophia Morvillo.

"None of this would have been possible without your love and support. I am so glad to be home. And they all lived happily ever after…."

Neda Morvillo

Mr Morvillo's wife Neda died in the disaster alongside her husband.

The 57-year-old had a luxury jewellery brand, which she ran under her maiden name Neda Nassiri.

Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News

Ayla Ronald

Ayla Ronald, a senior associate at Clifford Chance, survived the yacht disaster, the law firm confirmed.

The 36-year-old worked alongside Chris Morvillo in helping defend Mike Lynch in court.

Clifford Chance said in a statement: "Our utmost priority is providing support to the family as well as our colleague Ayla Ronald, who together with her partner, thankfully survived the incident."

She is originally from Christchurch, New Zealand, but lives in London, her father told local media there.

He said she was left "very shaken" but "she and her partner are alive".

Charlotte Golunski

Charlotte Golunski was on board the yacht and was rescued along with her one-year-old daughter, Sofia.

She spoke to Italian newspaper La Repubblica, confirming she survived the yacht sinking and told how she kept her daughter alive after she was rescued.

"I held her afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning," she said.

"It was all dark. In the water I couldn't keep my eyes open. I screamed for help but all I could hear around me was the screams of others."

The 35-year-old is a partner at one of Mr Lynch's firms - Invoke Capital - and has worked there since 2012, according to her LinkedIn profile.

She also worked at Hewlett Packard, which acquired Autonomy in 2011, for 11 months.

Before that, she studied history at the University of Oxford.

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James Emsley

Ms Golunski's partner James Emsley was also rescued from the yacht, according to Sicily's civil protection agency.

The 36-year-old is the father of her one-year-old daughter.

James Cutfield

The 51-year-old captain of the yacht spoke to Italian newspaper La Repubblica after he was rescued.

Mr Cutfield, from New Zealand, was taken for treatment at the Termini Imerese emergency unit, where he told the newspaper: "We didn't see it coming."

Leah Randall

Leah Randall was part of the Bayesian crew and survived the sinking.

She was pictured going ashore in Porticello on Monday morning and is from South Africa.

Her mother Heidi told Sky News said she was "beyond relieved that my daughter's life was spared by the grace of God".

"It doesn't make it any easier living with the heartache of those who have lost their lives [or are] missing. My very deepest condolences to the chef's family as they formed a great friendship," she said.

Katja Chicken

Katja Chicken was another South African member of crew on board the Bayesian and was pictured being brought to safety in Porticello on Monday.

The Italian coastguard confirmed on Tuesday evening that Leo Eppel, a crew member, also survived the yacht sinking.

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Everything We Know About the Final Moments of the Passengers Who Died in the Sicily Yacht Tragedy

Five of the seven victims had been "searching for air pockets" as the luxury yacht sank on Aug. 19, authorities said

PERINI NAVI PRESS OFFICE/HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

The luxury yacht Bayesian that sank off the coast of Sicily on Monday, Aug. 19, resulted in the deaths of six passengers and one crew member.

Less than a week later, on Saturday, Aug. 24, Ambrogio Cartosio, the Chief Prosecutor of Termini Imerese, announced that Italian authorities were launching a manslaughter investigation into the sinking , and he identified all of the victims.

The seven victims who died in the tragic sinking were yacht chef Recaldo Thomas; British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his daughter, Hannah Lynch; Christopher Morvillo and his wife, Neda ; and Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy .

As authorities attempt to answer questions about what exactly led to the sinking of the 183-foot British-flagged vessel — which went down during a "violent storm,” the Italian Coast Guard previously told PEOPLE in a statement — here is what we currently know about the victims’ final moments.

FAMILY HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

During the Aug. 24 press conference, Girolamo Bentivoglio Fiandra, head of the Palermo Fire Brigade, revealed that as the Bayesian began going down early Monday morning, “It was quite clear that people were trying to hide in the cabins.”

“In the left-hand side, we found the first 5 bodies in the left-hand side cabins, and the final body on the right-hand side,” Fiandra said. “We found them on the highest part of the ship, which was closer to the surface. The vessel had three cabins on each side.”

The five victims, who "took refuge” on the luxury yacht’s left side, had been "searching for air pockets" in a final attempt at survival," he added.

HANDOUT/Vigili del Fuoco/AFP via Getty

As for why the victims were in the cabins in the first place, Giovanni Costantino — who leads The Italian Sea Group, the company that now owns Perini Navi, which built the Bayesian back in 2008 — told CNN it was due to a “very long sum of errors."

"Everything that has been done reveals a very long sum of errors,” he said in his interview, translated from Italian. “The people should not have been in the cabins, the boat should not have been at anchor. And then why didn't the crew know about the incoming disturbance?”

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Prior to the storm and subsequent sinking, some of the luxury yacht’s passengers were in celebration mode. They had been commemorating the recent acquittal of one of the victims, Lynch, 59, a source close to the survivors previously told PEOPLE.

Two months ago, Lynch was acquitted on all counts of a series of fraud and conspiracy charges he faced in the U.S. after a years-long legal battle dating back to 2018.

Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan via Getty 

He celebrated the acquittal on the Bayesian with his daughter and his wife, Angela Bacare, who was rescued along with 14 others on board.

Also celebrating were Morvillo, 59, who represented Lynch in the case, and Bloomer, 70, who was a close friend of the tech entrepreneur.

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