The body believed to be that of Hannah Lynch, the 18-year-old daughter of British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, has been found by divers searching the wreck of the Bayesian superyacht that sank off Sicily this week, an Italian coast guard official said Friday.
With the wreck located nearly 50 meters (160 feet) underwater, it may still be some time before divers – who have only around 12 minutes to reach and explore the site before having to resurface – are able to retrieve the body.
After retrieving six bodies from the wreck over the past four days, Lynch’s is the final body being searched for by Italian authorities. The body of her father, Mike Lynch, was retrieved and identified on Thursday, an Italian interior ministry official told Reuters.
The British-flagged vessel, with 22 passengers and crew members on board, sank on Monday after its mast, one of the world’s tallest, broke in half during a violent storm. Fifteen people were rescued on Monday and one body was recovered – thought to be that on the onboard chef Recaldo Thomas.
Six others were initially reported missing: Lynch and his daughter; Morgan Stanley International director Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy Bloomer; and prominent American lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda Morvillo.
Five days on, Italian authorities are still working to understand how the 56-meter (184-foot) yacht sank so quickly. Unverified security camera footage released Wednesday appeared to show the moment that a waterspout – a type of tornado that spun over Sicily early Monday – sank the vessel.
One witness, the owner of a nearby villa looked out to where the Bayesian was anchored, later watched back his CCTV footage that captured the yacht sinking.
“In just 60 seconds, you can see the ship disappear,” he told Italian outlet ANSA. “You can see clearly what’s happening. There was nothing that could be done for the vessel. It disappeared in a very short time.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
