The luxury yacht Bayesian sank off the coast of Sicily, leading to a heartbreaking tragedy that resulted in six confirmed deaths, including British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch. The disaster, which occurred amid a waterspout, has been described as a series of avoidable mistakes. As of now, Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, remains missing.
Giovanni Costantino, leader of The Italian Sea Group, expressed concern over the sequence of errors leading to the sinking. In an interview with CNN, Costantino criticized the crew’s failure to detect the impending storm and questioned why the yacht, which was deemed “unsinkable,” was at anchor during the storm. “Everything that happened reveals a series of significant errors,” Costantino stated. “The passengers should not have been in the cabins, and the boat should not have been anchored. The weather charts clearly showed the disturbance. The storm was foreseeable.”
Costantino highlighted that the absence of local fishermen, who would normally be present in such conditions, should have been a warning sign. “The passengers reported the storm as unexpected, but the data showed otherwise,” he said.
Witness Pietro Asciutto, a local fisherman, described the incident to the Washington Post. “I saw the boat, which was unusually large with just one mast, sink rapidly. It was floating one moment and gone the next,” Asciutto recounted.
The yacht, listed for sale by Lynch earlier this year for £30 million (around $39 million USD), had been recently removed from the market. Lynch had planned to relist it in the fall after a summer sailing trip. The passengers were reportedly celebrating Lynch’s recent acquittal in a financial fraud case in the U.S. A source close to the situation revealed that the trip was intended to mark this personal milestone with close friends and colleagues.
The incident has raised serious questions about the safety protocols and decision-making that led to the disaster.
