The Italian coastguard has identified the bodies of five individuals recovered following the sinking of a superyacht, according to reports from outlets including Sky News.
Search and rescue teams have been actively searching this week for six people who were unaccounted for after the Bayesian superyacht sank on Monday.
Among the deceased is British tech tycoon Mike Lynch. The other victims identified are Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judith Bloomer, lawyer Christopher Morvillo, and his wife Neda Morvillo.
Hannah Lynch, Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, is still missing.
A friend of Mike Lynch has described his death as “unbelievably tragic,” expressing that his friends and family had been “hoping for a miracle.”
Brent Hoberman told Sky News that Lynch was an “inspiring figure” in the tech community and should be remembered for his achievements.
“We were all hoping for a miracle. We knew it was unlikely, but you still hold out hope,” Hoberman said.
“It’s just so unbelievably tragic that after everything he went through over the last 12 years, defending his name and not truly living a full life, his death is now confirmed. It’s incredibly sad,” he went on.
Hoberman praised Lynch for his “courage” and “resilience” during his trial for fraud in the US, from which he was acquitted just two months ago.
He added that it “must be unbearable” for Lynch’s family to experience such a shift from “elation” to “tragedy.”
Hoberman also expressed hope that Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, who survived the sinking, has “close friends around her giving her courage and strength.”
It is believed that the identification of five more victims from the yacht disaster suggests that the search has now transitioned into a recovery mission for Mike Lynch’s daughter, Hannah Lynch.
The yacht was struck by a waterspout off the coast of Sicily shortly after 5AM on Monday.
The confirmed death toll is now at six out of the 22 people who were onboard the yacht, following the discovery of chef Recaldo Thomas’s body earlier in the week.
Captain James Cutfield, 51, described by his brother as a “well-respected” sailor with a career on boats since his teenage years, is among the survivors currently hospitalized.
As authorities formally identified the five bodies recovered, hopes are fading for the missing teenager.
Earlier in the week, Cutfield spoke for the first time to local media, recounting the sudden nature of the waterspout that caused the yacht to sink.
“We just didn’t see it coming,” he said.
