The British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch is lacking after a superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily throughout a violent storm.
The British-flagged Bayesian, a 56-metre sailboat, was carrying 22 individuals and anchored simply off shore close to the port of Porticello when it was hit by a twister within the early hours, the Italian coastguard mentioned in a press release.
One man, understood to be the vessel’s chef, was confirmed useless and 6 others, together with Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, remained unaccounted for on Monday night. The coastguard mentioned the lacking had British, American and Canadian nationalities.
Fifteen individuals have been rescued, together with Lynch’s spouse, Angela Bacares, who owned the boat, and a one-year-old lady who was saved by her mom.
A spokesperson for Lynch declined to remark.
A spokesperson for the UK Overseas Workplace mentioned: “We’re offering consular assist to a variety of British nationals and their households following an incident in Sicily, and are involved with the native authorities.”
Lynch co-founded Autonomy, a software program agency that grew to become one of many shining lights of the UK tech scene, within the mid-90s.
As soon as described as Britain’s Invoice Gates, Lynch spent a lot of the final decade in courtroom defending his identify in opposition to allegations of fraud associated to the sale of Autonomy to the US tech firm Hewlett-Packard for $11bn.
The 59-year-old was acquitted by a jury in San Francisco in June, after he had spent greater than a 12 months dwelling in impact below home arrest.
Upon his acquittal, Lynch informed reporters: “I’m wanting ahead to returning to the UK and getting again to what I really like most: my household and innovating in my discipline.”
In a separate growth on Monday, Lynch’s co-defendant at that trial, Stephen Chamberlain, died after being hit by a automotive whereas out operating in Cambridgeshire.
Chamberlain, the previous vice-president of finance at Autonomy, was hit on Saturday morning and had been positioned on life assist, Reuters reported.
In a press release Chamberlain’s lawyer, Gary Lincenberg, mentioned he had died after being “fatally struck” by a automotive whereas out operating.
Lincenberg added: “He was a brave man with unparalleled integrity, and we deeply miss him. He fought efficiently to clear his good identify, which lives on by his fantastic household.”
Lynch was awarded an OBE for companies to enterprise in 2006, and appointed in 2011 to the science and know-how council of the then prime minister, David Cameron. He was elected as a fellow to the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2008 and the Royal Society in 2014.
The Italian coastguard mentioned: “This morning at about 5am, following a violent storm, a 56-metre yacht referred to as Bayesian flying the British flag sank close to Porticello.”
The boat had a crew of 10 individuals and 12 passengers, it added.
Rescue divers try to achieve the hull, which sank to roughly 49 metres. The general public prosecutor’s workplace in Termini Imerese was investigating the incident.
Ten of these rescued, together with the one-year-old, have been transferred to hospitals and have been all in a secure situation.
Domenico Cipolla, a chief doctor on the Di Cristina hospital in Palermo the place the one-year-old lady and her mom have been admitted, mentioned: “The infant is doing nicely. The mom can be in good situation, albeit with some minor abrasions. The daddy may even be discharged from the hospital quickly.
“They’ve mentioned that almost all of them have been colleagues who labored for Lynch. They’re deeply traumatised. As time passes, they realise an increasing number of that this morning they misplaced many buddies.”
The mom of the one-year-old little one, Charlotte Golunski, 36, reportedly mentioned she stored her daughter afloat by retaining her arms outstretched upwards to stop her from drowning.
“It was all darkish,” she mentioned, in line with Italian media. “Within the water, I couldn’t preserve my eyes open. I used to be screaming for assist, however all I may hear round me have been the screams of others.”
She informed Italian media that the passengers – all colleagues of Lynch’s – had travelled to the Aeolian Islands, Milazzo and Cefalù.
The coastguard mentioned the yacht was constructed by the Italian shipbuilder Perini in 2008. The posh vessel had an aluminium hull, may attain a most pace of 15 knots and will carry 12 company and a crew of as much as 10, in line with on-line specialist yacht websites.
The boat left the Sicilian port of Milazzo on 14 August and was final tracked east of Palermo on Sunday night, with a navigation standing of “at anchor”, in line with the monitoring app VesselFinder.
Experiences within the native media mentioned a waterspout had hit the vessel. A waterspout, which roughly resembles a mini-tornado, is a column that descends from a cloud to kind a rotating combination of wind and water over a physique of water.
Some fishers reported recognizing a small twister off the coast at about 3.55am. Shortly after, they witnessed a misery flare allegedly launched from the vessel. The fishers approached however recounted seeing solely “scattered stays of the sailboat floating within the water”.
Storms and heavy rainfall have swept by Italy in current days, with floods and landslides inflicting extreme harm within the north of the nation after weeks of scorching warmth.
The captain of a close-by boat mentioned that when the winds surged, he had turned the engine on to maintain management of his vessel and keep away from a collision with the Bayesian, which had been anchored alongside him.
“We managed to maintain the ship in place and after the storm was over, we seen that the ship behind us was gone,” Karsten Borner mentioned. The opposite boat “went flat on the water, after which down”, he added.
He mentioned his crew then discovered a number of the survivors on a life raft – together with three who have been critically injured, and a child lady and her mom – and took them onboard earlier than the coastguard picked them up.
