Five bodies found in wreckage of luxury yacht ‘Paizian’ off Sicily

Four bodies recovered from luxury yacht wreckage Bayesian After sinking in an unusual storm off the coast of Sicily in the early hours of Monday morning, a fifth body remains in the sailboat while the whereabouts of a sixth missing person remain unknown.

Business mogul Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah were among six people still unaccounted for after their boat sank at around 5am near the Sicilian capital Palermo, after being hit by a violent storm known as a whirlpool.

The other four passengers missing since the disaster are Morgan Stanley International President Jonathan Plummer, his wife Judy Plummer, and Chris Morvillo, an attorney with Clifford Chance, and his wife Nida Morvillo.

The authorities have not confirmed the identities of the recovered bodies, although local and international media reported that some of them had been identified.

As body bags were returned to Porticello on Wednesday afternoon, dozens of emergency services personnel were waiting, and one bag was seen being loaded into the back of an ambulance.

The search was suspended on Wednesday evening and will resume on Thursday morning, with Salvatore Cocina of Sicily’s civil protection agency describing the recovery of the fifth body as “ongoing”. He also said an investigation would be carried out in due course, but the priority was to find the missing.

The body of Antiguan-Canadian national Ricaldo Thomas, who worked as a cook on the 56-metre vessel, was found on Monday, and tributes described him as a “lovable and kind human being”.

Emergency services rescued 15 other passengers and crew from the lifeboat, including a one-year-old baby and Lynch’s wife Angela Pakaris, who was said to be in a “state of shock and grief”.

Lynch, 59, recently made headlines after being acquitted of an $11bn (£8.64bn) fraud case in June over the sale of his software giant Autonomy to US firm Hewlett-Packard.

The voyage on his yacht is believed to have been a celebration, with “collaborators and colleagues” invited on board.

But a freak weather incident caused the yacht to capsize, with authorities now investigating whether the crew left the hatches open, as well as looking into safety measures on board.

Firefighters described the operation as “complicated”, with divers limited to 12 minutes underwater and debris and furniture scattered in the tight spaces inside the boat.

The yacht’s interior was inspected on Wednesday morning, while a team of four British inspectors from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) arrived in Porticello to take a look at the sinking site.

MAIB is looking into what happened because Bayesian He was flying the Union Jack, it is understood.

The Italian Coast Guard said the FBI was not involved in the search for the missing and had not been asked to help.

A helicopter was sent to assist in the search efforts, and divers from the local fire service were seen entering the water with lights attached to their heads.

Lynch and his wife Angela Bakaris, once dubbed the “Britain’s Bill Gates”, were worth £852m in 2023. Sunday Times Rich List.

Lynch founded Autonomy using technology he developed while a student at Cambridge University, and was awarded an OBE in 2006 for services to business.

After the company was sold to Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2011, a decade-long legal battle erupted. HP claimed, just a year after the sale, that Lynch had used accounting tricks to artificially inflate its value before the sale.

He was extradited to the US last May for a trial that acquitted him of all 15 charges. Lynch told Radio 4 earlier this month that his acquittal was “unspeakable” and believed he could only clear his name because of his vast wealth.

In an interview, he talked about his plans to spend the summer months on vacation.

Charlotte Golonski, who survived with her husband and child, said, Republic She hugged her one-year-old daughter, Sophia, to keep her from drowning.

“I held her with all my strength, my arms stretched out to keep her from drowning,” she said.

“It was pitch black. In the water I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I screamed for help, but all I could hear around me were other people screaming.”

She described waking up to the sound of “thunder and lightning and waves that made our boat dance,” adding: “It was the end of the world, and my husband and I were struggling to stand.”

The luxury vessel, which was sailing along the Italian coast, was owned by Revtom, a company registered in the name of Lynch’s wife, Angela Baccaris.