A tornado struck a luxury yacht off the coast of Sicily, leaving six passengers missing, including British IT mogul Mike Lynch, head of Morgan Stanley International Jonathan Bloomer, and well-known American lawyer Chris Morvillo.
Due to a storm-related break in its mast, which is among the highest in the world, one of the 22 persons on board perished when the ship sank on Monday. We’ve saved fifteen lives.
The wives of Bloomer and Morvillo are also missing, stated Salvatore Cocina, the chief of the Civil Protection service on the Italian island, to reporters who were there.
Bloomer is the chairman of the London-listed insurer Hiscox in addition to serving as the chairman of Morgan Stanley International, according to his LinkedIn profile. In a statement released on Tuesday, its CEO, Aki Hussain, expressed the company’s “deep shock and sadness” over the “tragic” news.
“Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this terrible situation, especially with our chair, Jonathan Bloomer, and his wife Judy, who are among the missing, as well as their family,” he continued.
After an unsuccessful attempt on Monday, Italian firefighters and divers will try again to search for the missing inside the sinking ship on Tuesday, the Coast Guard of Italy stated on X.
A spokesman for the Italian Coast Guard stated that the tornado struck the ship on Monday morning at approximately five in the morning local time. The Mediterranean island’s Porticello was around 0.5 miles away from where the vessel was anchored.
Strong thunderstorms moved throughout Sicily in the late hours of Sunday, depositing over 4 inches (100mm) of rain in less than 4 hours near Brolo, east of Palermo. A waterspout, a kind of tornado that starts over water or transfers from land to water, erupted over the location where the yacht was anchored Monday morning, according to a report from the European Severe Weather Database.
On the ship’s hull, one body was discovered. Among those recovered are Lynch’s spouse, Angela Bacares, the yacht’s captain, and a one-year-old girl. Lynch’s daughter, who is eighteen, is still missing.
59-year-old Lynch was found not guilty in June of fraud charges related to the multibillion-dollar sale of Autonomy, the software company he co-founded, to Hewlett Packard. Lynch is also an entrepreneur and tech investor. Lynch was accused by the prosecution of plotting to understate Autonomy’s income before it was sold.
The Clifford Chance barrister Morvillo, an American, played a key role in the case’s successful defence against Lynch. When CNN contacted Clifford Chance, he declined to respond.
According to an Italian news agency ANSA report, one survivor, Charlotte, 35, spoke of how she struggled to hold onto her one-year-old daughter, Sofia, as a flurry of waves sank the yacht.
“I lost the baby in the sea in two seconds, but I picked her up again right away, holding her against the raging waves. While the sea was wild, I held her near to me and tightly,” she said to ANSA. “A large number of people were screaming.”
A person familiar with the operations told CNN on Monday that the Marine Accident Investigation Branch of the United Kingdom is sending a team of four inspectors to Palermo to perform a first inspection of the yacht. When the squad is anticipated to arrive in Sicily was not specified by the anonymous source.
An official for the Italian Coast Guard told CNN that the 56-meter (184-foot) yacht known as “Bayesian,” which was flying the British flag, was primarily occupied by British passengers and crew, except two Anglo-French, one Irish, and one Sri Lankan.
Two New Zealand citizens were involved in the event, but they were not among those who are still missing, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of New Zealand informed CNN. The deceased individual’s nationality remains undisclosed.
On its website, the Italian company Perini Navi claimed that the Bayesian had the largest aluminium mast in the world, standing at 72.27 meters (237 feet).
According to Guinness World Records, the mast was three meters (10 feet) shorter than the highest mast in the world. According to the Guinness World Records website, the 75-meter (247-foot) carbon-fibre mast is part of the Mirabella V, a yacht that Vosper Thornycroft manufactured in Southampton, UK.
