The luxury yachting world was rocked by tragedy this week when the Bayesian, a 184-foot superyacht, sank off the Italian coast. The incident has left six people missing, including some high-profile figures from the finance and tech industries.
Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International, and his wife are among those unaccounted for. Bloomer, who also chairs insurance provider Hiscox, was reportedly on board when disaster struck.
British tech billionaire Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah are also missing. Lynch, once hailed as the UK’s Steve Jobs, had recently been acquitted of fraud charges in a high-profile case. The trip was reportedly organized to celebrate this legal victory.
Chris Morvillo, an attorney at Clifford Chance who represented Lynch in his recent case, is another passenger who hasn’t been found. Morvillo’s background includes a stint as an assistant US attorney for the Southern District of New York.
The yacht’s chef, Canadian Thomas Recaldo, has been confirmed dead, with his body recovered by authorities.
Salvatore Cocina, head of Sicily’s civil protection agency, reported that the Bayesian capsized after being hit by a tornado near the port of Porticello. The vessel was carrying 22 people – 12 passengers and 10 crew members.
❗️🌪🇮🇹 – British multimillionaire Mike Lynch, co-founder of Autonomy, and Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International, are missing after their yacht, Bayesian, was wrecked by a tornado off the coast of Sicily.
The yacht had 22 people on board; 15 were rescued,… pic.twitter.com/QDOKkytJeS
— 🔥🗞The Informant (@theinformant_x) August 20, 2024
Fifteen people managed to escape before the yacht sank, including Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, who owns the vessel. Among the survivors was Charlotte Golunski, who kept her 1-year-old daughter Sophia afloat in rough waters until they were rescued.
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Dr. Domenico Cipolla, a chief physician at Palermo’s Di Cristina hospital, provided an update on the survivors:
“The baby is doing well. The mother is also in good condition, albeit with some minor abrasions. The father will also be discharged from the hospital soon. They have said that most of them were colleagues who worked for Lynch. They are deeply traumatized. As time passes, they realize more and more that this morning they lost many friends.”
The Italian coast guard has deployed divers to search the wreckage, which lies about 160 feet underwater. There’s concern that some missing passengers may have been trapped in their rooms when the yacht sank. At this point, the missing are feared dead.
CCTV captures £30m Bayesian superyacht sinking "in 60 seconds" off #Sicily coast during storm
6 missing, including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, his daughter & Morgan Stanley boss
Yacht struck by waterspout at 5am Monday. Rescue efforts hampered by depth & debris 🙏 pic.twitter.com/NKhRg4md0z
— True Crime Updates (@TrueCrimeUpdat) August 20, 2024
In a strange twist of fate, Lynch’s co-defendant in his recent fraud case, Stephen Chamberlain, died in a car accident in the UK on the same day as the yacht disaster. Chamberlain, 52, was the former vice president of finance at Autonomy, Lynch’s software company.
The Bayesian, built in 2008 and refitted in 2020, was owned by Revtom Limited, with Bacares listed as the sole shareholder.
Karsten Borner, captain of a nearby boat, witnessed the incident. He told Reuters:
“We managed to keep the ship in position and after the storm was over, we noticed that the ship behind us was gone. [It] went flat on the water, and then down.”
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Borner’s crew found some survivors on a life raft and took them aboard before the coast guard arrived.