Shipwreck of a sailing boat in Sicily: searches still ongoing

Six people are still missing after the Bayesian, the sailboat they were on, sank. Businessman Mike Lynch and her daughter Hannah are among the missing, while one person is deceased.

Terrible tragedy at sea. It was around 5am on Monday morning when a sailing boat sank off the coast of Porticello, a coastal town about 15 kilometres east of Palermo. Named Bayesian and measuring 56 metres long, 12 passengers and 10 crew members were on board the British-flagged vessel at the time of the sinking. Although fifteen people, including a baby and his mother, were rescued, six people are still missing. One person, whose body was found inside the wreck of the sailboat, is deceased.

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As the search for those on board continues, the head of Sicilian civil protection, Salvo Cocina, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his daughter Hannah were among the missing. The 59-year-old businessman is the founder of software publisher Autonomy. A helicopter, divers and coastguard vessels are being deployed around the wreck of the sailboat, which was located at a depth of 50 metres, to find them. As for his wife Angela Bacares, she is safe and sound. She was admitted to a local hospital after being slightly injured in the sinking.

On the path of a waterspout

Parked about 700 meters from the port of Porticello, the sailboat was in the open sea when it was hit by a waterspout. A rotating column of air and water, this highly dangerous meteorological phenomenon is increasingly observed in Europe. A fisherman from the Sicilian town who witnessed the tragedy told the ANSA news agency that he had seen the boat sink. All lit up at the time of the sinking, “a normal holiday spent happily at sea turned into a tragedy,” he explained.

According to several Italian media outlets, a second sailboat, also present at sea nearby of the Bayesian, quickly intervened to provide assistance to those on board before the arrival of help.