Divers are reportedly busy retrieving Mike Lynch’s personal hard drives, which are located in a vault on the ocean floor.
Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported that the tech billionaire, whose clients include MI5, the NSA and the Israeli secret service, did not trust confidential documents in the cloud and kept two encrypted hard drives in a vault now 49 metres below sea level.
Palermo investigators said no personal belongings of the seven victims and 15 survivors have been recovered so far, and that the sailing vessel is under 24-hour surveillance. They said the only hard drives recovered were those of the ship.
The manslaughter investigation continues after divers found video equipment that could explain how the ship sank.
Italian prosecutors will continue their investigation after a source said Reuters Navy divers recovered parts of the deck, computer equipment, video surveillance systems, hard drives and various other equipment.
The electronic devices have been sent to specialized laboratories outside Sicily to check their condition and possibly recover data, the source said.
Key Points
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Italian Navy salvages video equipment
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Two of Mike Lynch’s encrypted hard drives remain 160 feet underwater in vault – report
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Professor fears more deaths from ‘medicanes’ after Bayesian tragedy
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Mike Lynch’s yacht was ‘unsinkable’, says boss of company that built boat
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Seven Key Unanswered Questions About the Bayesian’s Demise
Darktrace is taken over after the death of Mike Lynch
16:45 , Barney Davis
Darktrace shares are expected to cease public trading by the end of September after the company sets out a timetable for completing its large-scale private equity acquisition.
Private equity group Thoma Bravo closed a deal worth almost $5.31 billion (£4.3 billion) to buy Darktrace in April.
Darktrace AI disrupts cyberattacks including ransomware, email phishing and threats to cloud environments in seconds.
It is one of the largest private transactions for a London-listed company in recent years and Darktrace will leave the FTSE 100 on October 1.
Poppy Gustafsson helped found the Cambridge-based company in 2013, along with Autonomy founder Mike Lynch.
Mr Lynch and his daughter Hannah were among seven people who died when the Bayesian superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily last month.
Bodies flown back to UK on private planes – report
15:44 , Barney Davis
According to reports, the bodies of Mike Lynch, his daughter Hannah, 18, and the other victims of the Bayesian disaster have been flown back to their families after their autopsies.
They were repatriated by private jet and their funeral is expected to take place in the coming days, Italian media reported.
The British tech magnate’s boat was moored at Porticello harbour on August 19 when it sank in the early hours of the morning. It now lies 50 metres below the surface.
The dead included Mr Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, who was due to start studying at Oxford University in September, and four other family members and acquaintances.
Jonathan Bloomer, the international chairman of Morgan Stanley Bank; his wife Judith, a psychotherapist; Christopher Morvillo, an American lawyer; and his wife Neda, a jewelry designer, also died in the disaster.
The yacht’s cook, Recaldo Thomas, also died, his body found floating near the wreck.
Four victims found with carbon dioxide in lungs
14:44 , Barney Davis
Tech billionaire Mike Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah and five other people were killed when the Bayesian meteorite went into a downburst, a phenomenon similar to a small tornado.
Chief Recaldo Thomas, Jonathan Bloomer, the chairman of the bank Morgan Stanley International, his wife Judy, Chris Morvillo, an attorney at Clifford Chance, and his wife Neda were the other victims of the August 19 tragedy.
According to the Italian news agency La Republica, it is feared that four of the victims suffocated in air bubbles that filled with carbon dioxide. The autopsy indicates that it is possible that they were still conscious after the yacht sank.
Fifteen people, including Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, survived when they were rescued by a nearby yacht.
Mike Lynch’s yacht was ‘unsinkable’, says boss of company that built boat
12:44 , Barney Davis
Giovanni Costantino, the CEO of Italy’s Sea Group, said there were no flaws in the design and construction of the Bayesian and that it was “one of the safest boats in the world”.
The Bayesian, a 184-foot superyacht carrying 22 passengers and crew, was anchored off the Porticello harbour near Palermo but disappeared beneath the waves within minutes after a freak tornado struck.
“The ship sank because water entered, and investigators will have to determine where that was,” Costantino told the television news program TG1.
He suggested that the sinking was the result of a series of human errors.
The CEO said that if the crew had closed all the doors and hatches, turned on the engine, lifted the anchor, lowered the keel and turned the yacht into the wind, they would have suffered “no damage”.
He said data shows it takes 16 minutes to sink from the moment the wind starts.
Cartoisio said the tragedy would be even more painful if the sinking was caused by “behaviour that is not in line with the responsibilities that everyone in shipping must assume”.
Bodies of Mike Lynch and daughter Hannah flown back to families after Bayesian superyacht sinks
11:44 , Barney Davis
The bodies of those who died after billionaire Mike Lynch’s Bayesian superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily have been flown back to their families by private jet.
Italian publication Annual Holidays of Sicily Autopsy examinations have reportedly been completed at a hospital in Palermo and the bodies have now been returned.
My colleague Tom Watling reports:
Bodies of Mike Lynch and daughter flown back to UK after Bayesian tragedy
Captain gives his account of tragic demise
11:38 , Barney Davis
Captain James Cutfield previously gave his terrifying account before invoking his right to remain silent.
According to Correire, he told prosecutors: “Sailor Griffiths came to wake me up and told me the wind was force 20.
“I looked at the instruments and that was indeed the case. I immediately went outside and asked them to warn everyone because I didn’t like the situation.”
He said the Bayesian slope was 45 degrees and “stayed that way for a while and then suddenly dropped to the right.”
“We were thrown into the sea.”
Able Seaman Matthew Griffiths, 22, said: “We somehow got back to the bridge and tried to form a human chain to rescue those who managed to reach the opening from the accommodation deck… they were struggling on the walls because the boat was in the water.
“The first in the chain was the captain who reached out. He helped everyone, the ladies, the mother with the little girl… But we sank and unfortunately some didn’t make it.”
Mr Griffiths joins fellow Australian Tim Parker-Eaton, 56, and New Zealand skipper James Cutfield, 51, on the official list of people formally investigated for shipwreck and multiple manslaughter.
An investigation does not mean you will be charged. It is a procedural step.
Professor fears more deaths from ‘medicanes’ after Bayesian tragedy
11:27 , Barney Davis
Professor Yoav Yair, dean of the Faculty of Sustainability at Reichman University in Israel, told the Mirror that storms called ‘medicanes’ (Mediterranean hurricanes) could cause similar shipwrecks to the Bayesian superyacht.
He said: “It is not a question of whether this (the Bayesian disaster) will happen again, but rather when and where.
“In the last few years we have seen medicanes, which are a new phenomenon. These are hurricane-like storms that have a lot of energy and cause flash floods, torrential rain, lightning, hail and strong sustained winds. The medicane of “Daniel” in 2023 devastated Libya and caused more than 30,000 deaths there.
“Sea surface temperatures have risen globally, including in the Mediterranean, filling the atmosphere with greater flows of water vapour, meaning there is a greater chance of huge storms.”
Seven Key Unanswered Questions About the Bayesian’s Demise
09:37 , Barney Davis
As the Bayesian superyacht lies on her side, 50 metres beneath the now calm waters of the Mediterranean, it remains a mystery how the 56-metre superyacht sank during the typhoon off the harbour at Porticello.
Remote controlled underwater vehicles and cave divers are trying to raise the yacht, and experts will investigate in the coming days.
The key unanswered questions surrounding the tragic demise of the Bayesian
Italian Navy salvages video equipment
08:37 , Alexander Butler
Italian Navy divers have found video surveillance equipment in the wreck of billionaire Mike Lynch’s Bayesian superyacht, which could help explain how the yacht sank.
The British tech magnate’s boat was moored at Porticello harbour on August 19 when it sank in the early hours of the morning. It now lies 50 metres below the surface.
The dead included Mr Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, who was due to start studying at Oxford University in September, and four other family members and acquaintances.
Divers searching for clues about how Mike Lynch’s superyacht sank make discovery