Five bodies found on sunken luxury yacht as one person remains missing

Five bodies have been found inside the wreck of a luxury yacht that sank in a storm off the coast of Sicily but one person remains missing, officials have said.

Salvatore Cocina, the head of Sicily’s civil protection agency, told the PA news agency that searches have finished for the day on Wednesday and will resume on Thursday morning.

He confirmed that of the five bodies found, only four had been recovered, and the whereabouts of the missing sixth person remains unknown.

Technology tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah were among the people unaccounted for after the yacht, named Bayesian, sank at around 5am on Monday.

Identities of the recovered bodies have not been confirmed by authorities, despite local and international media reporting some had been identified.

Body bags were seen being taken to the port of Porticello on Wednesday afternoon, with the process of bringing the fifth body to shore being described by Mr Cocina as “ongoing”.

He said there will be an investigation in due course, but the priority is finding the missing.

As the body bags were taken back to the port, dozens of emergency services staff were waiting, and one bag was seen being put in the back of an ambulance.

The missing also included Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy, and Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda.

Inspections of the yacht’s internal hull took place on Wednesday morning.

A team of four British inspectors from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) also arrived in Porticello to look at the site of the sinking.

The MAIB is looking into what happened because the Bayesian was flying a British flag, it is understood.

The Italian coastguard said the MAIB is not involved in the search for the missing people and has not been requested to assist.

A helicopter was drafted in to help the search effort as divers from the local fire service entered the water with torches attached to their headgear.

A police boat and divers also entered the water on Wednesday afternoon.

Fire crews said they had been accessing the vessel through natural entrances, without making openings.

Remotely controlled underwater vehicles have been used, with naval units and cave divers also taking part in the search, the coastguard said.

The Bayesian was moored around half a mile off the coast of Porticello when it sank at about 5am local time on Monday as the area was hit by a storm.

Vincenzo Zagarola, of the Italian coastguard, previously said the missing tourists were feared dead.

The wreckage of the Bayesian is resting on the seabed off the coast at a depth of 50 metres (164ft).

Fire crews described the operation as “complex”, with divers limited to 12-minute underwater shifts.

Of the 22 passengers and crew on board, 15 – including Mr Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares – were rescued after escaping on to a lifeboat.

Survivors have been recuperating at a hotel complex in Porticello, where authorities were gathering witness statements.

The boat trip was a celebration of Mr Lynch’s acquittal in a fraud case in the US.

The businessman, who founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, was cleared in June of carrying out a massive fraud relating to its 11 billion US dollar (£8.64 billion) sale to US company Hewlett Packard.

The Financial Times reported that Mr Bloomer appeared at trial as a defence witness for Mr Lynch, while media reports suggest the pair are close friends.

In a separate incident, Mr Lynch’s co-defendant in his US fraud trial, Stephen Chamberlain, died after being hit by a car while out running in Cambridgeshire on Saturday.