By Guglielmo Mangiapane
PORTICELLO, Italy (Reuters) -Italian search crews on Friday resumed efforts to find the body of Mike Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, the last person missing after the yacht belonging to the British tech magnate sank off Sicily this week, killing seven people.
The British-flagged Bayesian, a 56-metre-long (184-foot) superyacht carrying 22 people – 12 passengers and 10 crew – was anchored off the port of Porticello, near Palermo, when it capsized and rapidly sank on Monday after being hit by a pre-dawn storm.
Rescue operations, entering their fifth day, are “long and delicate” and involve 28 specialist divers, the fire brigade said in a statement.
The wreck is lying at a depth of 50 metres and once inside the passageways are narrow.
On Thursday, an interior ministry official told Reuters that the last missing body might not be inside the yacht and could have been swept out to sea.
The bodies of the other five dead passengers were recovered on Wednesday and Thursday from inside the yacht. The body of the only crew member who died, onboard chef Recaldo Thomas, was recovered near the wreck on Monday.
A judicial investigation has been opened into the sinking, which has baffled naval marine experts who say a boat like the Bayesian, built by Italian high-end yacht manufacturer Perini, should have withstood the storm.
The yacht’s captain James Cutfield and his eight surviving crew members have been questioned by police, but made no public comment on the disaster. Investigating prosecutors are due to hold a press conference on Saturday.
The police have also spoken to passengers and witnesses.
COMPLEX SALVAGE OPERATION
Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, which owns Perini, told Reuters the shipwreck was the result of a string of “indescribable, unreasonable errors” made by the crew, and ruled out any design or construction failings.
Pulling the wreck out of the sea, where it is now lying on its right side, apparently intact, may help investigators determine what happened, but the operation is likely to be complex and costly.
Nick Sloane, a South African engineer who led the operation to salvage the Costa Concordia cruise liner that sank in 2012, said in Italian media interviews on Friday that the operation would cost up to 15 million euros ($16.7 million).
He told daily La Repubblica that salvaging the yacht would take six to eight weeks, including preparation work, and would have to be completed by mid-October, without specifying the reasons for the timing.
Bringing the yacht to the surface will have to be done “very, very slowly”, and might take a couple of days, he said.
($1 = 0.8993 euros)
(Additional reporting Giselda Vagnoni, writing by Alvise Armellini and Giulia Segreti; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
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