Mike Lynch yacht latest: Divers to try and break into cabins in search for missing passengers off the coast of Sicily as four Britons and two Americans remain lost at sea after Bayesian sailboat sinks in freak storm

We previously reported that remotely controlled underwater vehicles have been deployed to the site of the Bayesian superyacht to help rescue divers today.

We now have more details about what these vehicles are and how they will help at the scene.

The Telegraph reports the device can function for up to seven hours and operate at a depth of 300 metres in which time it can record detailed pictures and videos.

In a statement issued by the Italian Coast Guard, officials said:

Search operations for the six missing from the shipwreck of the yacht ‘Bayesian’ have been continuing unabated since the early hours of dawn (Monday) with the deployment of naval, aerial and underwater resources, coordinated by the Palermo Coast Guard.

Underwater investigations, conducted by divers from the Naples and Messina Coast Guard Diving Units, have been enhanced with the help of an additional remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV - Remotely Operated Vehicle) with high-performance features.

The ‘robot’ is capable of operating on the seabed at a depth up to 300 metres and for between six and seven hours.

The device supplied by the Coast Guard, is equipped with advanced technology to investigate the seabed and record videos and detailed images. It aims to provide useful and timely elements to reconstruct the dynamics of the accident for the benefit of the Termini Imerese Public Prosecutor’s Office.

by Rory Tingle

The captain of Mike Lynch's sunken superyacht is a 'well respected' seafarer who has worked on boats since he was a teenager and was previously employed by a Turkish billionaire.

James Cutfield, a 51-year-old New Zealander, was in charge of the Bayesian when it sank off the coast of Sicily during a storm - leaving one man, the ship's chef, confirmed dead and six more missing.

The luxury £30million sailboat was anchored just a few hundred metres off the coast of Porticello on calm seas when it was suddenly struck by a violent waterspout just before 5am on Monday.

Mr Cutfield spoke for the first time about the tragedy from his hospital bed in Palermo, telling an Italian newspaper: 'We didn't see it coming.'

Officials are today investigating whether hatches left open by crew caused the boat to sink in a matter of minutes, as divers continue to searching for the missing, which include Mr Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah and a boss at Morgan Stanley.

The captain's brother, Mark Cutfield, said he was a 'very good sailor' and was 'very well respected' in the Mediterranean. He told the NZ Herald that James is currently in hospital but was 'okay' and did not have injuries that were 'too dramatic'.

Investigators in Italy and the UK will examine the circumstances surrounding the sinking of the Bayesian.

One expert at the scene said an early focus of the official investigation into the tragedy, launched by prosecutors in nearby Termini Imerese, would be whether the yacht's crew had closed access hatches into the vessel before the storm struck.

Investigators would look at whether appropriate measures had been taken, given the forecasts for bad weather overnight, and if any of the crew members are criminally liable.

Meanwhile a British team will also take part in the probe, with a former marine accident investigator saying they will look at whether the windows or watertight doors were open.

Four inspectors from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) have today arrived in Porticello.

A team of four British inspectors from the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) have arrived in Porticello where they are expected to look at the site of the sinking, the PA News agency have reported.

They are understood to have arrived on Tuesday and are expected to carry out a 'preliminary assessment' of the site on Wednesday.

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

The Italian Coastguard said the MAIB are not involved in the search for the missing people and that it did not request assistance.

Spokesman Vincenzo Zagarola said:

Even if they come (probably) the searches are carried out by the Italian authorities. Initiative (was) not requested by us.

Divers have returned to the site of the Bayesian wreck as they resume searches for six passengers feared trapped inside.

The search has previously been described by 'very complicated' so let's take a look at the challenges facing those who are heading 50 metres underwater to provide answers for survivors in Sicily and friends and family in the UK and the US.

Here are just five issues the divers will have to contend with today

• Dive teams are understood to have a maximum of just 10 minutes per search with the yacht resting on the sea bed about 50 metres below the surface and tilted on one side
• Experts suggested the luxury sailboat was not anchored in a safe place which has also caused concern. It is believed the ship sank after its mast - one of tallest in the world at an enormous 246ft-high - snapped during the brutal incident and keeled over, taking the hull beyond the 'down-flooding angle', according to nautical experts.
• Gaining access to the yacht has proved challenging because it has remained 'practically intact' meaning there are no easy entrances, with rescuers forced to smash their way through a 3cm-thick porthole.
• Rescue efforts so far are also said to have been hampered by 'very confined' spaces. Marco Tilotta, inspector of the Palermo Fire Department's diving unit, said: 'Access to the hull is difficult, getting inside, going down to the compartment below through the narrow stairs and going into all the cabins to analyse centimetre by centimetre is really hard and difficult work.'
• Divers are also having to work in 30C temperatures which will add to their exhaustion when working throughout the day.

A maritime expert has claimed the Bayesian superyacht may have sunk as a result of a 'black swan event'.

So-called black swans are defined as Weather events characterised by their extreme rarity and severe impact with Hurricane Katrina in 2005 cited as a previous example.

Matthew Schanck, chair of the Maritime Search and Rescue Council, said the Bayesian may have fallen victim to such an event.

He told Reuters:

Looking at the extreme weather, if it was a water spout, which it appears to be, it's what I would class as like a black swan event. And even outside of the maritime industry, all industries struggle with the black swan events.

He said he was confident the authorities would "get to the bottom" of what caused the shipwreck, thanks to the accounts of survivors, witnesses and examination of the ship, which appears to have remained intact on the seabed.

Inspections of the sunken yacht’s hull have taken place on Wednesday morning.

Search crews arrived at 6.30am local time (5.30am BST), with a boat carrying divers seen leaving Porticello at around 10.30am (9.30am BST).

Fire crews say they are accessing the yacht through natural entrances, without making openings.

Remotely controlled underwater vehicles are being used, with naval units and cave divers also taking part in the search, the Italian Coastguard has said.

by Inderdeep Bains for The Daily Mail

There were 12 guests on the doomed £30million Bayesian superyacht when it was sunk off the coast of Sicily after being hit by a freak tornado.

Here the Mail looks at who was on board the boat when disaster struck:

This article is available only to Mail+ subscribers

by Robert Hardman

Even in the dwindling twilight, the divers and the patrol boats are still out there off the Sicilian coast as I write, lending the tiniest credence to that slenderest of hopes: might someone, in some miraculous air pocket, still be alive?

It is now two days since the 183ft British superyacht, the Bayesian, capsized in seconds and sank in 150ft of water in the early hours of Monday.

Six people are missing, including the owner, British tech guru Mike Lynch, and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah.

Yet, divers have since reported finding a hull still apparently intact and lying on its ­starboard side with heavy detritus – furniture and so on – blocking their path to some of the cabins within.

In the absence of bodies, one expert raised the dim possibility that someone might still be trapped in a submerged pocket of air.

Nick Sloane, a salvage engineer who worked on the wreck of the Italian Costa Concordia cruise ship, told Sky News yesterday that ‘they’ve got a very small window of time to try to find people’.

He added that, since the yacht was on its side and not upright, the prospects of trapped air were much greater. ‘The next 24 hours are critical,’ he said.

Jeremy Bloomer, twin brother of missing passenger Jonathan Bloomer, last night told the BBC: ‘It’s a slow process and it will take time. So there might be air pockets, but we don’t know. It’s still wait and see, so fingers crossed.’

The authorities have not – quite – abandoned all notions of a miracle, though they were managing expectations last night.

Read more here:

Rescue divers have been pictured preparing to resume the search for six people missing after a superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily.

According to the Ansa News Agecny, a briefing between firefighters, Italian port authorities and engineers has taken place to assess the situation before dives are carried out later today.

by Nick Craven and Matthew Lodge

Guests and crew members on the doomed Bayesian superyacht were filmed peacefully enjoying it's owner's 'victory' trip just days before the boat sank off the coast of Sicily.

Video taken by curious onlookers showed a group of people on the £30million vessel as it floated off Porticello, with men and women in white polo shirts seen moving around the deck in calm waters off the island of Vulcano last week.

The boat had been taken to Mediterranean island by British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, who had invited family and friends with him to celebrate his 'second life' after being acquitted of fraud charges in the US.

Just days later six of those on board would be missing and 15 others dramatically rescued after the boat capsized following a direct hit from a freak 'black swan' waterspout during severe thunderstorms on Monday morning.

Today the search operation for those who are still not accounted for - including Mr Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter and a senior boss at Morgan Stanley - enters its third day, with divers warning they are not expecting to find anyone alive.

by Tom Cotterill

Specialist divers searching the wreck of the British superyacht Bayesian were among the team of rescuers scrambled to deal with the sinking of the Costa Concordia.

A frantic hunt is underway to find the six people still missing following the Bayesian's shock sinking off the coast of Sicily on Monday morning.

The £30million luxury vessel - owned by British tech mogul Mike Lynch - capsized after being battered by tornado-forced wind.

Specialist divers are this morning resuming efforts to get into the wreck of the 187ft British-flagged vessel - with Mr Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter among the passengers missing and now feared dead.

Italian news website il Giornale now reports that some of the frogmen deployed today also supported rescue efforts onboard the sunken cruise ship the Costa Concordia.

The Costa Concordia partially sank in January 2012 after it struck a rock off the coast of Tuscany, killing 33 people.

by Miriam Kuepper

The wife of missing British tech tycoon Mike Lynch is now reportedly recovering from her injuries in a wheelchair whilst she is waiting for updates on her husband and 18-year-old daughter after Mr Lynch's superyacht sunk.

Angela Bacares, 57, has revealed that the first sign of the freak waterspout that sunk the luxury sailboat Bayesian just before 5am this morning was a 'slight tilt' that woke her up.

Ms Bacares, who was among the fifteen people who were rescued from the 180ft ship, told Italian media that both her husband and their daughter Hannah, 18, are missing after the yacht sank as she anxiously waits for updates.

Mr Lynch's wife told La Repubblica that she and her husband woke up at 4am when the boat suddenly 'tilted'.

Mrs Bacares said that they were not worried at the time, but that she still got up to see what was happening, until glass shattered and created confusion on board.

She sustained abrasions on her feet - likely after walking on glass shards during the sinking - which have left her unable to walk and sitting in a wheelchair, La Repubblica reports, while she also has bandages on others part of her body.

by Emily Jane Davies, Nick Craven, Matthew Lodge and Rory Tingle

Horrifying CCTV shows the Bayesian superyacht being engulfed by the vicious storm that would sink it 'in 60 seconds'.

Footage taken from a CCTV camera on a villa just 200 yards from where the boat sank shows the ship anchored in the distance - its blinking lights just visible beyond the torrential rain.

The homeowner told a local newspaper: 'In just sixty seconds you can see the ship disappear. By chance, after the uproar of the news, I looked at the cameras. My children told me.

'Of about twenty cameras installed in the house, only one was not disturbed by the wind and the rain. You can clearly see what is happening. There was nothing that could be done for the vessel. It disappeared in a very short time'.

There is a second video - which has not been published - showing the boat sinking, reports Giornale di Sicilia.

by Katherine Lawton

Schoolfriends of 18-year-old Hannah Lynch (pictured left) are anxiously waiting for updates on her safe return after the teenager went missing alongside her tech billionaire father when his superyacht suddenly sank.

Luxury sailboat Bayesian was docked off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo, Italy, when a waterspout hit the area just before 5am on Monday morning, wrecking the boat and causing it to rapidly sink.

While 15 of the 22 people on board were rescued by nearby ships, the yacht's chef tragically died while six people including Hannah and her father Mike Lynch are still missing.

The prestigious Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, west London, said it is 'in shock' after former pupil Hannah was one of the six to disappear following the 'whirlwind'.

A spokesperson for the £25,000-a-year school said: 'We are all incredibly shocked by the news that Hannah and her father are among those missing in this tragic incident and our thoughts are with their family and everyone involved as we await further updates.'

Hannah had just completed her A-Levels and gained a place to study English at Oxford before the tragedy.

by Rory Tingle and Matthew Lodge

This is the first photo of a luxury superyacht chef who was killed when the vessel sank after being hit by a freak storm off the Sicilian coast.

Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian citizen working in Antigua, is the first confirmed victim of the disaster yesterday morning.

Tributes poured in to him today, with a friend hailing him as a 'very special person' who 'had so much to give'.

Others shared photos of the chef on his travels around the world, during which he would regularly post on social media about his stunning culinary creations.

Before we look ahead to the search operation today, let's recap some of the developments from yesterday as the extent of the complicated rescue mission became clear.

Here are five takeaways we learned:

• First photo emerges of superyacht chef Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian citizen working in Antigua, who is the first confirmed victim of the disaster
• Schoolmates of Hannah Lynch are anxiously waiting for updates after Oxford bound teenager vanished alongside her father with students said to be in 'shock'
• Horrifying CCTV shows the Bayesian superyacht being engulfed by the vicious storm that would sink it 'in 60 seconds'.
• Wife of missing British tech tycoon Mike Lynch who is now 'recovering from injuries in a wheelchair' whilst waiting for updates on her husband and daughter
• Divers who searched sunken cruise ship the Costa Concordia are drafted in to hunt for missing passengers of Bayesian superyacht

Italian authorities have opened an investigation into whether hatches left open by crew members on tech tycoon Mike Lynch's superyacht caused it to sink so quickly.

Sailing expert Sam Jefferson, editor of magazine Sailing Today, said he believes open hatches and doors may have contributed to the rapid sinking.

He said: 'I would have said that the boat got hit very hard by the wind, it was pinned over on its side.

'I imagine all the doors were open because it was hot, so there were enough hatches and doors open that it filled with water very quickly and sank like that.'

Andrea Ratti, a nautical design professor at Milan Polytechnic University, said a boat the size of the Bayesian would only sink so quickly by taking in a huge amount of water.

He suggested that portholes, windows or other openings may have been left open, letting in water.

The search for passengers unaccounted for has entered its third day this morning, with divers continuing their efforts to reach the cabins in the hopes of finding them.

An engineer has claimed the missing passengers could still be alive in air pockets 164ft below the surface, meaning divers - who can only remain underwater for ten minutes per dive due to the depth of where the wreck is - are competing in a race against time.

Their operation has been hampered by difficulty getting into the ship with divers forced to smash their way through a 3cm-thick porthole to gain access to one area and other parts of the wrecked vessel blocked by furniture.

One expert at the scene said an early focus of the official investigation into the tragedy, launched by prosecutors in nearby Termini Imerese, would be whether the yacht's crew had closed access hatches into the vessel before the storm struck.

Investigators would look at whether appropriate measures had been taken, given the forecasts for bad weather overnight, and if any of the crew members are criminally liable.

Hello and welcome to MailOnline's live coverage of the Sicily yacht sinking as the search for six missing passengers enters its third day.

Divers searching the wreck will today attempt to enter cabins on the Bayesian after rescuers managed to smash through a 3cm-thick porthole with the help of a local blacksmith with experience working on boats.

Six passengers remain unaccounted for.

British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy, a former charity trustee and American nationals Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda are feared dead.

We will bring you the latest on the search operation throughout the course of the day.