By PALERMO, Italy — Italian Coast Guard officials have recovered the body of the last missing person from a British-flagged superyacht that sank off the coast of Sicily earlier this week, bringing a somber conclusion to the maritime tragedy.
The Coast Guard reported that divers located the body of a woman on Friday. While official identification is pending, sources close to the investigation suggest the deceased may be Hannah Lynch, the eighteen-year-old daughter of British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch.
The vessel, identified as The Bayesian, a fifty-six-meter (one hundred eighty-four-foot) superyacht, reportedly encountered severe weather conditions and sank rapidly early Monday morning. Civil protection officials believe the ship may have been struck by a waterspout, a tornado-like phenomenon that occurs over water.
Mike Lynch’s body was recovered on Thursday. Reports indicate that Lynch had been celebrating his recent acquittal on fraud charges with family members and his legal defense team aboard the yacht at the time of the incident.
Fifteen individuals, including Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, were rescued from the accident. However, six others, including Lynch and his daughter, were initially unaccounted for.
Recovery efforts were hampered by the yacht’s position, resting approximately fifty meters (one hundred sixty-four feet) below the water’s surface. Dive teams faced challenging conditions in their attempts to locate and retrieve the bodies trapped within the vessel’s hull.
The sinking of The Bayesian marks one of the most significant maritime accidents in the region in recent years. Italian authorities have initiated an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the yacht’s sinking, including an examination of weather conditions and the vessel’s seaworthiness at the time of the incident.
As the recovery operation concludes, attention now turns to the ongoing investigation and the process of formal identification of the recovered bodies. The incident has sparked discussions about maritime safety regulations for private vessels in the Mediterranean.
Authorities have not yet released information about memorial services or repatriation of the deceased. The survivors are receiving support from local authorities and their respective embassies.
