Body found ‘confirmed to be chef Recaldo Thomas’
The identity of the body found is Recaldo Thomas, a chef who was part of the crew of the Bayesian yacht, the Italian coastguard told Sky News.
Thomas, of Canadian-Antiguan heritage, was one of the ten crew members onboard the yacht when it was hit by a tornado.
Key events
Lorenzo Tondo
As the sun dips below the horizon of the sea in Porticello, Italian firefighters’ divers have been tirelessly working for almost 40 hours to recover the bodies of the six missing people.
Authorities report having successfully found and opened a passage in the hull, resting at a depth of 50 meters.
However, within the sailboat, the spaces are extremely confined, making progress challenging when encountering obstacles, with furniture obstructing access to the cabins.
Prosecutors in Termine Imerese will soon question the survivors who have been moved in a security-monitored hotel in Bagheria around the clock.
Firefighters said so far that none of the six missing bodies have been located, although investigators believe they may be trapped inside the vessel when it sank.
The mother of one of the yacht survivor’s said she is “beyond relieved” her daughter’s life was spared.
Heidi Randall, the mother of Leah Randall, told Sky News: “I’m beyond relieved that my daughter’s life was spared by the grace of God.
“It doesn’t make it any easier living with the heartache of those who have lost their lives or are missing.
“My very deepest condolences to the chef’s family as they formed a great friendship.”
Leah, from South Africa, worked as a crew member on the Bayesian.
Lorenzo Tondo
Luca Cari, a spokesperson for the firefighters, confirmed to the Guardian that “a breach inside the ship’s hull has been opened but no body has been identified yet”.
“The work is long and complicated,” he added. “And at the moment, there are no further updates.
“We will continue to search.”
Rescue teams trying to access the submerged Bayesian yacht could be listening out for a timed banging noise, a senior university lecturer said.
Dr Jean-Baptiste Souppez, who teaches mechanical, biomedical and design engineering at Aston University, said: “A sign the rescuers may be looking for is a banging noise at regular intervals: this is common practice on submarines, and was one of the signs the search mission for the Titan submarine was looking for after it went missing last year.”
He added the possibility of air pockets forming inside the vessel was “simply impossible to predict”.
Lorenzo Tondo
The Guardian has seen a footage captured by a surveillance camera at a shipyard showing the Bayesian caught in a storm and sinking.
The video was recorded shortly after 4:10 in the morning. The vessel fired an emergency flare at 4:35 am, moments before submerging.
There were 15 survivors who were rescued after the Bayesian capsized and rapidly sank off the coast of Sicily, writes Yusra Abdulahi and Matthew Weaver.
All but three of the survivors have been named. Here is what we know about them so far:
Ayla Ronald is a 36-year-old New Zealand national, and a solicitor for Clifford Chance. She was part of the legal team who represented Mike Lynch when he was acquitted of fraud charges. Lynch is among six people missing and feared dead.
Her father confirmed she survived together with her partner Matthew Fletcher, 41, who is British.
Charlotte Golunski, 36, is a partner at Lynch’s company Invoke Capital where she has worked since 2012. She described saving her infant daughter from drowning. “For two seconds I lost the baby in the sea, then I immediately held her again in the fury of the waves,” she told Giornale di Sicilia.
Charlotte and her daughter, Sofia, 1, were treated in hospital. Her partner and child’s father James Emsley also survived.
Mike Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, 57, was seen in a wheelchair after suffering injuries to her feet inc the accident, according to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
James Catfield, the yacht’s captain, told La Repubblica that they “didn’t see it coming” after he was rescued.
Sasha Murray, a 29 year old Irish citizen injured her right foot in the tragedy, according to the Irish Times.
Italian media named Matthew Griffith, a 22-year-old French citizen, as one of the survivors.
Myin Htun Kyaw, 39-year-old from Myanmar, is reported to be among at least four crew members who survived.
Crew members Leah Randall and Katja Chicken from South Africa were both photographed leaving hospital after being rescued, Sky News reported.
Fears are growing for six people who are missing after a superyacht, the Bayesian, sank off the coast of Sicily when it was hit by a tornadic waterspout during a storm on Monday morning, writes Jane Croft, Simon Goodley, and Matthew Weaver.
On Monday the body of one man, the yacht’s chef, was recovered from the water. There were 15 survivors. A rescue mission is under way to search for six others who remain unaccounted for. The four Britons and two Americans have all been named. Here is what we know about them.
The Italian Coastguard has confirmed the name of another crew member.
Leo Eppel was on board the yacht that sank, spokesman Vincenzo Zagarola said.
Body found ‘confirmed to be chef Recaldo Thomas’
The identity of the body found is Recaldo Thomas, a chef who was part of the crew of the Bayesian yacht, the Italian coastguard told Sky News.
Thomas, of Canadian-Antiguan heritage, was one of the ten crew members onboard the yacht when it was hit by a tornado.
The former school of Mike Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter has said its “thoughts are with their family and everyone involved” as the pair remain missing.
A spokesperson for Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, west London, said: “We are all incredibly shocked by the news that Hannah and her father are among those missing in this tragic incident and our thoughts are with their family and everyone involved as we await further updates.”
The Guardian has obtained an exclusive photo taken by a fisher from Porticello of the moment when the emergency rocket was launched by the Bayesian.
The photo was taken at 4:35 in the morning. According to the photographer, the image shows that the emergency rocket was launched while the boat was already sinking.
“I went out on the balcony because I have two boats moored in the harbor and I was worried about the approaching storm,” said Francesco Lo Coco, who took the image.
“Suddenly, I saw the sailboat rocking. I grabbed my phone to take the picture. The emergency rocket was launched while the sailboat was already sinking.”
Two more survivors have been named as Leah Randall and Katja Chicken, The Italian Coastguard said.
The pair, who are both South African, worked as crew members on the Bayesian vessel.
The shipwreck of a luxury yacht moored off the coast of Sicily is the latest sign that the Mediterranean is becoming a more dangerous sea to sail in, according to climate experts and sailors.
Luca Mercalli, president of Italy’s meteorological society, said the sea surface temperature around Sicily in the days leading up to the shipwreck was about 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), almost three degrees more than normal.
“This creates an enormous source of energy that contributes to these storms,” he told Reuters.
Giuliano Gallo, a former skipper who crossed the Atlantic and has written several books on sailing, said the Mediterranean was becoming more like the Caribbean, which has areas that many boats steer clear of at certain times of the year.
“But things are less predictable in the Mediterranean,” he said.
Karsten Borner, the captain of a boat that was moored alongside the Bayesian but escaped harm, said Monday’s storm had been “very violent, very intense, a lot of water and I think a turning system like a tornado”.
He also blamed more frequent episodes of intense heat during the summer months for playing a role in causing such storms.
“The water is … way too hot for the Mediterranean and this causes for sure heavy storms, like we had one week ago on the Balearics, like we had two years ago in Corsica and so on.”
Summary of the day thus far
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Six people are still missing and feared dead after a yacht capsized off Sicily early on Monday.
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A search operation continued today involving specialised divers.
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The missing individuals have been named as Mike Lynch, a British tech entrepreneur once regarded as the UK’s Bill Gates, Hannah Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter, Chris Morvillo, a lawyer who represented Lynch during a trial, and his wife Neda Morvillo, as well as Jonathan Bloomer, the chair of Morgan Stanley International bank, and his wife Judy Bloomer, a charity trustee.
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Vincenzo Zagarola of the Italian coastguard said “we suppose that the six people missing may not have had time to get out of the boat.”
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The national director of Italy’s firefighting department divers, Giuseppe Petrone, said that his team has managed to locate a breach in the sailboat’s hull and is working to open a passage to reach the cabins.
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The British ambassador to Italy, Edward Llewellyn, told reporters he spoke with survivors. “I wanted to express my solidarity and that of the British embassy. But I also came to speak with the Italian authorities,” he said.
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Karsten Borner, the captain of a nearby sailboat that was right next to the Bayesian, said that “I have never seen a vessel of this size go down so quickly. Within a few minutes, there was nothing left. Then we saw the raft with the 15 passengers. It was a tragedy,” he added.
Peter Beaumont
With so few details of precisely what occurred to the Bayesian during its sinking, the sailing community has pondered the exact set of circumstances that could have tipped over such a large vessel and well crewed at anchor so suddenly.
One possibility that has occurred to some is that the 75m mast either broke or ended up very quickly below the surface of the water as the yacht was blown over, with a holding anchor in the sea bed creating a pivot point for the massive energy striking the exposed hull.
One of those suggesting an extraordinary coincidence of different circumstances, all occurring in rapid succession, is the celebrated yachtsman and author Skip Novak, a well known figure in ocean racing who has sailed extensively in Arctic and Antarctic waters.
Novak told the Guardian: “My theory with what little is out there is when the mast broke – an incredible thing in itself – that went over the side and that weight, combined with the side wind, and combined with the anchor holding caused an extraordinary lever to increase the heeling moment.
“All that combined put her on her side. Then those big side windows blew out and/or an open aft deck to the interior and she flooded in a jiffy. Hard to imagine what else it could have been.”
Lorenzo Tondo
Lorenzo Tondo reporting from Porticello
The national director of Italy’s firefighting department divers, Giuseppe Petrone, told the Guardian that his team has managed to locate a breach in the sailboat’s hull and is working to open a passage to reach the cabins where they hope to find the bodies of the six missing individuals.
“We have finally located a breach,” Petrone says. “Our men are working to open it. We are hopeful.”
