A body has been found in the search for Hannah Lynch – one of the people who went missing when a superyacht sank off Sicily earlier this week carrying 22 passengers and crew.
Mike Lynch, along with his daughter Hannah, Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy Bloomer, Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo, and his wife Neda Morvillo went missing when the yacht sank at around 5AM local time on Monday during a storm.
“This is an unimaginable grief to shoulder,” the Bloomer family said in a statement. “Our parents were incredible people.”
The Morvillo family said it was “completely devastated by the passing of Chris and Neda,” and added, “Their passing is a tremendous loss.”
15 of the 22 passengers and crew on board – including Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares – were rescued after managing to get onto a lifeboat.
On Friday (August 23), divers continued their search for 18-year-old Hannah Lynch, who had been “unaccounted for”. It is believed her body has now been found, per Sky News.
An investigation is underway by Italian authorities into how the vessel sank.
Officials in the country are “investigating shipwreck and multiple counts of culpable manslaughter,” per Italian media on Friday.
Giovanni Costantino, the founder and chief executive of the Italian Sea Group, which owns the Perini Navi shipyard where the Bayesian was constructed, has defended how the boat was built and said human error was to blame for the deadly ordeal, claiming the crew had 16 minutes to avoid the tragedy.
Previous reports indicated that the sinking happened in 60 seconds, meaning the crew had little time to respond. The captain had said: “We didn’t see it coming”.
The yacht was caught in a sudden downpour. Weather experts reported that strong winds and lightning impacted the area, suggesting that the yacht was likely struck by rapidly descending air generated within a thunderstorm or possibly by a waterspout, which is similar to a tornado over water.
Mike Lynch’s body was found on Thursday, having been recovered by Italian divers.
The boat’s chef Recaldo Thomas was confirmed dead on Monday.
The boat trip had been a celebration of Lynch’s acquittal in a fraud case in the US.
