Emergency workers in southern Italy are searching for six people, including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, who went missing after a tornado sank a luxury yacht off the coast of Sicily early Monday. The incident has triggered an extensive air and naval search operation.
Italy’s Coast Guard reported that 15 people were rescued from the wreckage on Monday. However, one body was later recovered from the hull of the sunken yacht.
Among those missing are two Americans and four Britons, including Lynch, Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International, and Chris Morvillo, a prominent lawyer.
The luxury yacht, named “Bayesian,” was struck by a small waterspout—a type of tornado—near the Mediterranean island of Sicily. The storm, accompanied by heavy rain and strong winds, likely capsized the vessel. The British-flagged yacht was anchored about half a mile from the port of Porticello on Sicily’s northern coast when its mast broke in half during the storm, according to Salvatore Cocina, head of Sicily’s Civil Protection.
Eyewitnesses reported powerful winds and hurricane-like conditions that caused debris to scatter near the pier. Survivors were found clinging to life rafts in the area, said the captain of a nearby boat, Karsten Bower, who started his engine to prevent colliding with the Bayesian during the storm.
Bower and his crew managed to rescue four injured people before calling the Coast Guard, who later rescued the remaining survivors. One child was airlifted to a hospital in Palermo, while eight people were hospitalized overall, according to the mayor’s office.
One of the survivors, Charlotte, described how she struggled to hold onto her one-year-old daughter, Sofia, during the storm. She recalled the terrifying moments as she lost her daughter to the sea before managing to grab her again amid the chaos. The mother and daughter were later reunited with the father, James, at the hospital.
Search efforts continue, with Italy’s fire brigade dispatching helicopters and divers to try and reach the sunken yacht, which lies 49 meters (160 feet) below sea level. However, due to the depth, divers can only work for limited periods of time, said Marco Tilotta, an inspector from Palermo’s fire brigade.
The United Kingdom’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has also sent a team of four inspectors to Palermo to assess the scene.
The Bayesian yacht was carrying 22 people, mostly British passengers and crew, along with two Anglo-French individuals, one Irish, and one Sri Lankan, according to the Coast Guard.
Among the missing are high-profile individuals, including Mike Lynch, a 59-year-old British tech investor involved in a recent U.S. fraud case, and his 18-year-old daughter. Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, survived the incident. Bacares, who owns the yacht through the company Revtom Limited, recounted waking up at 4 a.m. as the boat tilted. Initially unconcerned, she and her husband began to worry when the yacht’s windows shattered.
Other missing passengers include finance tycoon Jonathan Bloomer and lawyer Chris Morvillo, who both played a role in Lynch’s successful legal defense in June. The body recovered from the yacht was identified as the onboard chef, Ricardo Thomas, an Antiguan citizen.
Built in 2008 by the Italian company Perini Navi, the 56-meter (184-foot) Bayesian yacht was available for charter at $215,000 (€195,000) per week. The yacht’s 72.27-meter (237-foot) mast was the tallest aluminum mast in the world, just shy of the world’s tallest mast, according to Guinness World Records.
Caroline White, deputy editor of BOAT International, noted that if the yacht’s mast broke, it should theoretically have become more stable, but the violent storm likely made the situation far more dangerous.
Strong storms across Sicily brought heavy rain late Sunday, and early reports suggest that a waterspout developed over the area on Monday morning, leading to the yacht’s sinking. Waterspouts, which are spinning columns of air that form over water, are often accompanied by high winds, heavy seas, hail, and dangerous lightning.
These phenomena rely on warm water to gain strength, and the Mediterranean Sea has been exceptionally warm, reaching a record 28.9 degrees Celsius (84 Fahrenheit) last week, according to preliminary data from Spain’s Institute of Marine Sciences. Local waters around Sicily have been even warmer, at nearly 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit), which is almost 3 degrees above normal, according to Italian climatologist Luca Mercalli. Warmer oceans, he explained, provide more energy and moisture to fuel storms.
