ITV News’ Antoine Allen reports on the latest developments
Four bodies have been recovered by search and rescue teams looking for six people feared trapped inside a sunken yacht off the coast of Sicily.
On Wednesday afternoon, the head of Sicily’s civil protection agency Salvatore Cocina confirmed two bodies had been found in the Bayesian superyacht which sank at around 5am on Monday.
A further two bodies were recovered shortly afterwards, taking the overall number to five.
A body recovered at the scene of the sinking on Monday was that of Canadian-Antiguan national Recaldo Thomas, who was working on the Bayesian.
Mr Cocina said there would be an investigation in due course, but the priority was to find those who were still missing.
The identities of the bodies recovered have not been revealed.
British tech tycoon and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, are among those who have been missing since the Bayesian sunk off the coast of Porticello, near the Sicilian capital of Palermo.
Specialist dive crews resumed search efforts for a third day, with authorities previously not ruling out the possibility the missing may still be alive.
Experts had speculated that air pockets could have formed as the Bayesian sank.
A spokesperson for the Italian Coastguard had earlier said it was working on a “very hard idea” that those missing are trapped inside the boat, and when asked about the likelihood of them being alive, said: “Never say never, but reasonably the answer should be not.”
The missing include Mr Lynch; his daughter, Hannah; Morgan Stanley International Bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer; his wife, Judy Bloomer; Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo; and his wife, Neda Morvillo.
Inspections of the yacht’s internal hull took place earlier on Wednesday morning, while a team of four British inspectors from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) arrived in Porticello.
The MAIB is expected to investigate what happened to the Bayesian because the yacht was flying a British flag, it is understood.
It is not involved in the search for the missing people, the Italian Coastguard said.
The Bayesian was moored around half a mile off the coast of Porticello when it sank.
It is now resting on the seabed at a depth of 50 metres.
Vincenzo Zagarola of the Italian Coastguard said the six missing tourists were feared dead.
Speaking on Tuesday, he said: “We think they are still inside the boat, that is our very hard idea.
“Our search and rescue activity by sea and air has gone on for around 36 hours.
“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.”
James Bird, a commercial diver and former rigger who worked on the Bayesian, explained to ITV News the difficult conditions dive crews could encounter.
He said: “There are passageways, corridors, cabins leading off left and right, and certainly when you get down to the cabins, the cabins are lower down in the vessel.
“They’re a deck down from the outside deck so you’re talking about going inside the vessel and down the staircase into a corridor, deck down and then you’re looking in cabins either side.
“So to penetrate the wreck you’re talking a couple of minutes to find your way in and then obviously finding your way back out again.”
Of the 22 passengers and crew onboard, 15 – including Mr Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares – were rescued after escaping onto a lifeboat.
‘You’re talking about a hatch no bigger than a car door in some places’ – James Bird, a commercial diver and former rigger who worked on the Bayesian, told ITV News that rescue crews will face ‘restricted access’ when conducting searches
Leo Eppel and South African nationals Leah Randall and Katja Chicken were confirmed to have been on board.
Survivors have been taken to a hotel in Porticello, where authorities are gathering witness statements.
The ship’s captain James Calfield, 51, told Italian media: “We didn’t see it coming.”
On Tuesday, Ed Llewellyn, British ambassador to Italy, expressed his sympathy to the families of those involved in the incident, saying his “heart goes out to them”.
British tourist Charlotte Golunski, who survived the sinking, told local newspaper La Repubblica she held her one-year-old daughter, Sofia, to stop her from drowning.
Ms Golunski and Sofia were treated in hospital, as was the child’s father, James Emsley. The doctor who treated them said it was a “miracle” the toddler had been saved.
Mr Lynch, who founded software giant Autonomy in 1996, was cleared in June of conducting a massive fraud relating to the $11 billion (£8.64 billion) sale to US company Hewlett Packard.
The boat trip was a celebration of his acquittal.
A spokesperson for Morgan Stanley said the bank was “shocked and saddened” while Clifford Chance said it was a “tragic incident”.
The former school of Mr Lynch’s daughter has said its “thoughts are with their family and everyone involved”.
Separately, 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.
In a statement released through Cambridgeshire Police, Mr Chamberlain’s family said: “Steve was a much-loved husband, father, son, brother and friend.
“He was an amazing individual whose only goal in life was to help others in any way possible.”
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