Revealed: The tragic final moments of the victims of the superyacht disaster – as divers reveal the heartbreaking scenes they found when trying to retrieve the bodies
Passengers on the doomed Bayesian superyacht scrambled desperately for the last remaining air pockets as the vessel sank to the seabed, investigators believe.
But while five of the victims’ bodies were recovered from one cabin, the youngest, 18-year-old Hannah Lynch, was found alone in a bedroom two doors away, it emerged yesterday.
The horrific last moments aboard the sinking £30m ship were pieced together at a crowded 90-minute press conference yesterday (SAT) hosted by the prosecutors who have launched a manslaughter and shipwreck investigation without specifying suspects.
Emergency service personnel and divers also spoke in detail for the first time of the incredibly complex five-day long rescue mission 160ft below the sea of Porticello in Sicily, which turned all-too quickly to one of recovering the dead.
Divers from the specialist fire brigade cave rescue team gave a gripping account of the peculiar difficulties they faced more than 50m below the surface, with the boat on its side, full of floating debris and mirrors reflecting their head torches back at them.
Hannah Lynch is pictured with her father Mike, who had just been acquitted of fraud charges in the US and was celebrating on board the Bayesian yacht when they both died
While five of the victims’ bodies were recovered from one cabin, the youngest, 18-year-old Hannah Lynch, was found alone in a bedroom two doors away, it has been revealed
Divers from the specialist fire brigade cave rescue team gave a gripping account of the peculiar difficulties they faced more than 50m below the surface. Pictured: (Left to right) Vincenzo Nardoni, department of fire fighters divers in Naples, Giuseppe Frison, head of department of cave divers, Vicenza, Guiseppe Petrone, National director
Divers enter Porticello harbor near Palermo, with the body of Hannah Lynch, the last missing person at the back of the boat on August 23
Divers heading into the water on August 23 to find Hannah Lynch’s body in a handout picture from the Italian coastguard
Stellar student Hannah – about to start a course at Oxford University – had been on board the ship with her father Mike and mother Angela, accompanied by lawyers and friends of the tycoon to celebrate his acquittal on fraud and conspiracy charges in the US in June after a long legal battle.
Mrs Lynch survived the accident, along with 14 other people, including the boat’s captain, New Zealander James Cutfield, 51, and eight of his crew, when the ship sank in the early hours of Monday.
Bentivoglio Fiandra, chief of Palermo’s fire brigade and part of the divers’ rescue team, explained that the Bayesian sank stern-first and then rolled onto its right side.
‘As a result, the victims sought refuge on the left side of the boat, where the last air pockets remained as the vessel was sinking,’ he said.
The divers found five bodies in the first cabin on the left and one, Hannah’s, in the third cabin on the left.
It was clear that the discovery of Hannah’s body on Friday was a distressing moment for the fire brigade divers who brought her back to shore and gently passed her up to colleagues on the dock.
Chief Prosecutor for the district of Termini Imerese, Ambrogio Cartosio, leading the investigation, confirmed that Hannah’s body was recovered on Friday, adding: ‘Hannah Lynch was recovered on August 23, which deeply moved the rescue team, prompting a spontaneous round of applause.’
Asked about the applause when the news came back to shore that her body had finally been located and recovered, Inspector Vincenzo Nardoni, a diver drafted in from the fire brigade’s unit in Naples, said: ‘It was an emotional liberation, a relief of stress.
‘Because stress is our daily bread. We work on call and in emergencies, and we intervene immediately. So stress is our baggage, is what we bring with us.’
Hannah Lynch and her father Mike Lynch (both pictured above) were on the yacht celebrating Mr Lynch’s acquittal on US fraud charges
Recaldo Thomas, chef on the Bayesian, was the first person to be recovered after the yacht sunk on Monday
Judy and Jonathan Bloomer died on the Bayesian as it pitched over in the water
The bodies of Neda and Chris Morvillo, pictured in 2018, were retrieved earlier this week
He said the divers had to ‘recalibrate’ to adjust to everything being on its side in the boat – ‘we had to revise the scene from a different angle from the way we’d normally see it, and that made everything more difficult.’
‘We entered the confined spaces, having already performed evaluations on the safe point to enter inside the yacht. We found the safest spot and got inside from there.
‘But inside it was a very confusing place, with wardrobes and furniture whirling all around us, and lots of mirrors reflecting back our lights at us.
‘The bodies were all wedged in tight spots, with furniture on top or beside them. They were all stuck there.’
The 30 divers were limited to 12-minute spells at the seabed, on a continuous cycle, from dawn until dusk. Some of the divers were also involved in the 2012 recovery of the sunken Costa Concordia liner.
Giuseppe Frison, Head of the Department of the Fire Fighters’ Divers, leading the cave divers, told the Mail: ‘Let’s say that this event has brought back some memories, having done nearly 50 dives on the Concordia incident.
‘Inside the cabin, it revived the same sensations. But in terms of scale, everything was very different. Plus this dive was so much deeper, so we had to severely restrict our time at depth.
‘It felt a little like rerunning the movie in our heads, but it was more intense.
‘It was like visiting someone’s house turned at 90 degrees, with everything on its side.
‘Since everything was revolving around us, we had to proceed slowly, first securing floating items for safety.
‘We operated methodically, whether the spaces were large or small, searching everywhere until we found what we were looking for.’
He added: ‘We were in a room full of debris, with a mixture of wooden furniture and other objects, but there was this new factor, as the space was full of mirrors, making it very disorientating, as you enter with the light on our heads, you seem to see yourself coming toward the boat, so it was very confusing.’
The body of Canadian-Antiguan national Recaldo Thomas, who was working as a chef on the superyacht, was recovered at the scene on Monday.
A handout photo made available on August 19 by Perini Navi Press Office shows the ‘Bayesian’ sailing boat, in Palermo, Sicily, Italy
Both the hull and the superstructure, the part above the main deck, were made from aluminium
Search vessels returning to shore on Friday after Hannah Lynch’s body was discovered
The operation was made more complex by the depth of the wreck – 50 metres below the surface – and low visibility (pictured: rescue workers on Thursday)
Chief Prosecutor Mr Cartosio, flanked by around two dozen emergency officials, said in the press conference at the town’s court that his office has opened an initial investigation into manslaughter and negligent shipwreck.
He added that they are conducting an investigation against unknown persons.
Asked whether the captain and crew will remain in Sicily, Mr Cartosio said: ‘There’s no obligation but they should be available for the investigation.’
Prosecutors have confirmed that Captain Cutfield, who has already been questioned for two hours by the prosecution team, will undergo more questioning.
They added that he had been ‘extremely cooperative’.
Lead prosecutor Raffaele Cammarano said officials were interviewing survivors, adding that they would be interviewed to find out exactly why seven lives were lost.
‘We are going to discover how much they knew or to what extent all the people were warned,’ he vowed.
They also indicated that British and American authorities are involved in the investigation.
‘Well the inquiry is Italian… [but] yes, things are underway from the foreign judicial authorities,’ said Mr Cartosio.
The passengers who died were probably asleep, prosecutors said, and this is the reason they failed to escape.
Officials suggested that ‘they were asleep whereas the others [referring to the crew] weren’t’.
Maritime director of western Sicily Rear Admiral Raffaele Macauda said that there is ‘no information so far that the yacht was wrongly placed’ when it sank.
Questions on the weather at the time of the sinking have also been raised by journalists in the press conference.
The yacht had been hit by a downburst, according to Raffaele Cammarano, the prosecutor of this specific case.
He told the press conference ‘from the information we have, it is a downburst we are talking about’.
Downbursts are powerful winds that descend from a thunderstorm and spread out quickly once they hit the ground.
Rescue workers standing by after recovering the body of Hannah Lynch off the coast of Porticello yesterday
Divers searched for a total of 72 hours underwater to find the bodies of those who died during the disaster (pictured: diving equipment used by the search teams)
The coastguard deployed helicopters to assist with the search throughout (pictured: search parties on the water on Wednesday)
He also added more details about the weather at the time of the sinking.
‘Apart from extreme events which are being verified by the prosecutor, there was a great deal of visibility,’ the official said.
‘And as you can see from the internet there was forecasts from midnight to 4am, winds of a strength of five from the north-west and the west and a storm alert.
‘But there wasn’t an alert of a tornado.’
He added: ‘Given that the conditions were such, there wasn’t anything to suggest there could be an extreme situation arising.
‘There are vessels that can monitor, after all, these events and one would have thought that the captain had taken precautions.’
Meanwhile, the skipper from a nearby yacht who rescued 15 passengers from the Bayesian leapt to the defence of Mr Cutfield.
Veteran sailor Karsten Borner, who was captain of the smaller Dutch-flagged cruiser the Sir Robert Baden-Powell, told the Mail on Sunday he did not believe Cutfield had made a mistake – and that the tragedy was down to the length of the Bayesian’s mast.
Mr Borner, 69, whose vessel was berthed nearby when the storm struck, said there was a much simpler explanation than human error.
‘There is a lot of blame on the crew – that’s very wrong,’ he said.
‘I think they did what they had to do, to try and close the hatches and get people out from inside. The captain went back out searching.
But the difference is obvious – my masts are 29 metres and the masts of the Bayesian are 73 metres.
‘That would have had a bigger impact. She capsized – then she filled up with water quickly. Then the hatches cannot be closed completely.’
Mr Borner described how he and his crew were prepared for the storm and started their engine to keep the cruiser in the anchor position – critical to operating ships in adverse weather.
He added: ‘We kept the ship in position by engine and the Bayesian was very close to us. They did the same, as far as I know.
‘We kept an eye on them because they were behind us, very close.
Prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio (centre) has confirmed a question of ‘manslaughter’ had been hypothesised following initial investigations into the sinking on Monday August 19
Rear Admiral Raffaele Macauda of the Italian coastguard (right) suggested there was a desire to raise the wreck of the Bayesian from the sea bed
The prosecutor taking direct charge of the case, Raffaele Cammarano (pictured), said the survivors were being questioned
‘Then we didn’t see them anymore. My first mate said she floundered – indeed she was sunk.
‘I saw a red flare go up – where we were, you get the wind but not the waves.
‘Then we jumped into the tender, my first mate and me. We saw the life raft with 15 people on, including a baby. The ship was upside down yet they got the inflatable up, it was incredible.
‘They were quite quiet, I think they were in shock for sure. They came over to our tender and we took care of them.’
Mr Borner said he gave evidence to the state prosecutor before sailing his cruiser away.
Additional reporting Ryan Hooper and Valeria Ferraro
