Divers scouring the wreck of the luxury yacht that sank off the coast of Sicily have recovered four bodies, increasing the death toll to five.
The four bodies were among the six tourists declared missing after the yatch capsized on the coast.
The bodies were recovered on Wednesday by divers after an intensed search and rescue operations on the waterways.
Rescue officials have been looking for six missing people, including British tech entrepreneur mike Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter and Jonathan Bloomer, a non-executive chair of Morgan Stanley International.
The British-flagged Bayesian, a 56-metre-long (184-ft) superyacht, owned by mike lynch’s wife, was carrying 22 people, and was anchored off the port of Porticello, near Palermo, when it capsized during a fierce, pre-dawn storm on Monday.
Fifteen people survived, while the body of the onboard chef, Canadian-Antiguan national Recaldo Thomas, was found near the wreck hours after the disaster.
Inspection of the wreck, lying sideways at a depth of around 50 metres, was a “long and complex” operation, the Italian fire department said, with inside spaces obstructed by furniture and debris, and scuba divers having just 8-10 minutes beneath the water before needing to resurface.
Separately, the coast guard deployed a remotely operated vehicle to scan the seabed and take underwater pictures and videos that it said may provide “useful and timely elements” for prosecutors looking into the disaster.
The coast guard has been questioning survivors, including the captain of the Bayesian, and passengers on the yacht that was moored next to it who witnessed the ship going down, judicial sources said.
No one is under investigation at the moment, sources added.
Experts have been at a loss to explain how a large luxury vessel, presumed to have top-class fittings and safety features, could have sunk within minutes, as recounted by witnesses. The yacht anchored next to it was unharmed by the tempest.
The Bayesian, which was owned by Lynch’s wife, was built by Italian shipbuilder Perini in 2008 and last refitted in 2020. It had the world’s tallest aluminium mast, measuring 72 metres, according to its makers.
