Sicily yacht sinking: Divers break into hull with crucial hours loom in search

Italian authorities have released drone footage of their “long and complex” operation trying to enter the sunken wreck of the Bayesian superyacht.

As friends hoped the remaining six missing guests found air pockets on the sunken vessel and had managed to survive for more than 50 hours Vincenzo Zagarola of the Italian Coastguard said they were feared dead.

Asked about the likelihood of them being alive, he said: “Never say never, but reasonably the answer should be not.”

“We think they are still inside the boat, that is our very hard idea.

“Of course, we do not exclude that they are not inside the boat, but we know the boat sank quickly.

“We suppose that the six people missing may not have had time to get out of the boat.”

David Tabizel, who co-founded software company Autonomy with Mike Lynch in 1996, has told Sky News: “I hope there’s a miracle about to occur.”

The Italian Coastguard has not ruled out the possibility that those missing, including technology tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, may still be alive, with experts speculating air pockets could have formed as the yacht sank.

Among those missing are also Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer; his wife, Judy Bloomer; Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo; and his wife, Neda Morvillo.

The frantic rescue operation continued overnight with divers trying to access the £14 million vessel, which is thought to be largely intact on the seabed.

Prosecutors have opened an investigation into the disaster with six still missing as they try to work out how the Bayesian sunk.

One expert at the scene in Sicily told Reuters that an early focus of the investigation, which is expected to last months, would be on whether the yacht’s crew had failed to close access hatches into the vessel before the tornado struck.

However, an industry expert said it should have taken hours for the Bayesian to fill up with enough water to sink it, making its swift demise incomprehensible.

“I don’t think the industry has ever faced anything like this. It’s a horror story,” he said, declining to be named.

Fire department diver Marco Tilotta told Il Messaggero daily the wreck was “apparently intact”, with “no gashes, no signs of impact”. However, only one half of the hull is visible to divers.

Prosecutors will also look at whether appropriate measures were taken in preparation for the storm, such as use of the yacht’s retractable keel, which adds extra stability and acts as a counterweight to the large mast.

A couple who are among the six missing after the Bayesian yacht sank have been described as “incredibly generous people” by the reverend of their local church.

Speaking of Jonathan and Judy Bloomer, Rev Tim Edwards, from Knockholt in Kent, told BBC South East: “At the moment there’s an awful lot that we don’t know”.

He added that the couple are “very much” part of the village community as well as being active with local charities.

Recaldo Thomas, who is understood to be the superyacht’s chef, has been pictured after he died in the sinking of the Bayesian.

The Palermo Port Authority told Canadian broadcaster CBC News the body of Mr Thomas, a Canadian-born man who had been living in Antigua, had been recovered from the wreckage.

The chef’s friend Gareth Williams told the BBC: “I can talk for everyone that knew him when I say he was a well-loved, kind human being with a calm spirit.”

Tributes have been paid to him by friends on social media, with one saying: “Rest in Power big man. I don’t know what else to say except I love you, and I always will.”

Another wrote: “Going to miss you so much Recaldo Thomas still finding this so hard to believe.”

The Italian coastguard confirmed to this information to Sky News.

Emergency teams trying to access the submerged Bayesian yacht will have to make “a big choice” as the rescue efforts intensify, a maritime diving and wreckage expert has said.

Bertrand Sciboz told BBC News: “I think 50 metres is a limit to dive with a certain category of professional divers, so you will need to dive with some kind of helmet and pipe and (be) connected to the surface for oxygen, and also for for speaking and hearing and telling what you see and and do.

“It’s always very difficult, and especially with a sailing vessel, because you’ve got rope everywhere, you’ve got a sail which is floating in the current, because we are in Mediterranean Sea and not in the English Channel.

“But the main thing, you know, it’s the fact that in those kind of conditions, it’s very hard to go inside the wreck, and they will have to have to make a big choice at one moment, of salvaging the whole wreck or rescuing the bodies.”