Autopsies have been carried out on two victims who drowned when the Bayesian super yacht sank last month in a freak storm with the loss of seven lives.
Tech billionaire Mike Lynch, 59, and his daughter Hannah, 18, who was due to start at Oxford University this month were among the dead.
Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, mother Hannah, survived along with 14 others after the £30 million ship sank off the coast of the Italian island of Sicily in Porticello near Palermo on August 19.
The first autopsies were conducted on lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda, and it was confirmed that they drowned, sources said on Monday.
There were no other signs of injuries and autopsies on the other victims will continue for another week along with the coroner’s inquest.
The first autopsies were conducted on lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda (both pictured) and confirmed they drowned, sources said Monday.
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah both died in a Bayesian tragedy when their superyacht capsized off the coast of Sicily.
Judy and Jonathan Bloomer died in Bayesian while keeled in the water
Recaldo Thomas, chef at Bayesian, was the first person to recover after the yacht sank
All the victims were passengers except the ship’s cook Recaldo Thomas.
His body was the first to be recovered after the cruise ship sank.
Three crew members are currently under investigation in Italy on suspicion of multiple manslaughter and causing the shipwreck, including captain James Cutfield.
Cutfield exercised his right to remain silent when questioned by prosecutors on Tuesday, his attorney said.
He explained that he was ‘tired’ and needed more time to build his defense case.
One Bayesian yacht survivor previously said the crew ‘saved who they could’ when the boat sank.
Matthew Griffiths was one of 22 people on board the Bayesian when it was destroyed by a strange waterspout just a few hundred meters from Porticello harbor in the early hours of August 19.
A 22-year-old man, who was on duty the night of the tragedy, told investigators that the crew did everything they could to save those who were in Bayesian, according to comments reported by the Italian news agency Ansa.
‘I raised the captain when the wind was at 20 knots (23 mph). He gave the order to wake up the others,” Ansa quoted Griffiths as saying.
‘The ship capsized and we were thrown into the water. Then we can wake up again and try to save those who can,” he added, describing what happened that night, when the Bayesian had anchored in the port of Sicily.
‘We walked on the wall (of the boat). We saved whoever we could, Cutfield also saved the little girl and her mother,” he said, pointing to passenger Charlotte Golunski and her one-year-old daughter. In all, 15 survived the crash.
Hannah (pictured), 18, was about to start at Oxford before tragedy struck the Bayesian supership
A handout photo made available on August 19 by the Perini Navi Press Office shows the sailboat ‘Bayesian’, in Palermo, Sicily, Italy
The £30 million ship sank off the coast of the Italian island of Sicily in Porticello near Palermo on August 19.
The body of the 18-year-old boy was found alone in his cabin on the superyacht after sinking 50 meters below the surface of the Mediterranean, rescue workers said.
James Cutfield, a 51-year-old New Zealander, was in charge of the Bayesian ship when it sank off the coast of Sicily during a storm.
Pictured: Hannah with her father Mike Lynch who both died on the yacht
Chief engineer Tim Parker Eaton, 56, insisted all ‘doors and hatches were closed’ on Bayesian condemned ahead of the ferocious storm.
Matthew Griffiths was one of 22 people on the Bayesian ship when it was destroyed by a strange waterspout.
Prosecutor Raffaele Cammarano said last week that the boat was most likely hit by a ‘downburst’, a very strong downwind.
However, the sinking has puzzled naval experts, who said that a boat like Bayesian, built by the Italian high-end yacht manufacturer Perini, should withstand the storm and, in any case, should not collapse quickly like that.
Prosecutors in the city of Termini Imerese, near Palermo, said the investigation would take time, as the wreck had not yet been recovered from the sea.
They are now investigating whether human error could have contributed to the disaster with claims that ‘portholes and hatches’ were left open which caused the ship to take on water and sink in just 16 minutes.
Chief engineer Tim Parker Eaton, 56, who is from England was also named as one of the crew under investigation.
Mr Parker Eaton, 56, told prosecutors he followed procedures and made sure everything was watertight when the storm hit the cruise ship.
According to an excerpt from Mr. Parker Eaton’s statement, leaked to the Italian media, he forced all doors and openings on the yacht to be closed.
CCTV captured the final moments of the Bayesian superyacht before it sank beneath the waves
British-flagged superyacht Bayesian (pictured) is owned by technologist Mike Lynch.
Rescue workers stand after recovering the body of Hannah Lynch on Porticello beach on August 23
Search teams at the Bayesian sinking site as they prepare to search for Hannah Lynch on August 23.
He said: ‘I switched on the generator and the hydraulic pump for the rudder.’
When asked pointedly if all the portholes and hatches, including where the yacht tender is kept, he replied: ‘Everything is closed.
‘It just opened the door for the engine room which from my point of view would not have caused the disaster because it was at the other end of where the yacht went down.’
Lynch, 59, had invited friends and family to the boat to celebrate his recent acquittal in a major US fraud case when the tragedy struck earlier this month.
The 56-meter (185-foot) yacht was hit by a storm while anchored in Porticello, near Palermo, and sank within minutes.
The bodies of Lynch, her 18-year-old daughter Hannah and their friends were found in the following days in a major search operation.
Prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio, who is leading the investigation, said the team will consider every element of responsibility including the captain, the crew, individuals responsible for supervision and the yacht manufacturer.
Investigators are focusing on how a sailboat deemed ‘unsinkable’ by its manufacturer, Italian shipyard Perini Navi, sank while a nearby sailboat remained undamaged.
Prosecutors said the event was ‘very fast’ and may have been a ‘downburst’ – strong local winds that descend from a thunderstorm and spread rapidly as they hit the ground.
