Officials in Italy said Thursday the bodies of five of the six people missing after a superyacht sank off Sicily this week have now been recovered, including that of British tech mogul Mike Lynch.
Rescue and government officials say Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah remains the only person unaccounted for among the 22 people aboard the 56-meter sailboat, owned by Lynch, which sank early Monday during a sudden, violent storm that officials believe was a waterspout — a tornado that occurs over water.
The yacht had been anchored about 700 meters from the coast of Porticello, east of Palermo, when the storm struck.
Italian government officials say the body of 59-year-old Lynch was recovered Thursday, while four other bodies were recovered late Wednesday.
In what was described as a delicate operation, rescuers had been diving to the wreck, which was largely intact on the sea floor about 50 meters below the surface.
Officials say 15 of the people on board the ship were rescued Monday, including, Lynch's wife and a woman with a 1-year-old baby. The body of the ship’s chef was also recovered Monday.
Lynch had reportedly invited the guests onto the yacht to celebrate his acquittal in June in a massive U.S. fraud case connected to the sale of his software company, Autonomy, to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion.
Italian and British officials are reportedly investigating how the ship sank and why it sank so quickly while vessels nearby survived.
The ship’s manufacturer insists it was built to withstand major hurricanes, with watertight compartments to prevent rapid sinking when other compartments become filled with water.
Investigators are said to be looking into the possibility that certain hatch doors were left open at the time of the storm, allowing the main cabin to fill with water.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
