Divers find 4 bodies during search of superyacht wreckage after it sank off Sicily, 2 more remain
Divers searching the wreck of a superyacht that sank off Sicily have found four bodies as the search for missing passengers persisted and questions intensified about why the sailboat sank so quickly
PORTICELLO, Sicily — Divers searching the wreck of a superyacht that sank off Sicily found four bodies Wednesday, as the search continued for two more missing passengers and questions intensified about why the vessel sank so quickly.
Divers and rescue crews unloaded two body bags from the rescue vessels that pulled into port at Porticello. Salvatore Cocina, head of the Sicily civil protection agency, said two other bodies had also been found Wednesday in the wreckage for a total of four.
The discovery indicated that the operation to search the hull on the seabed 50 meters (164 feet) underwater was a recovery one, not a rescue, given the amount of time that had passed and no signs of life had emerged over three days of searching, maritime experts said.
The Bayesian, a 56-meter (184-foot) British-flagged yacht, went down in a storm early Monday as it was moored about a kilometer (a half-mile) offshore. Civil protection officials said they believed the ship was struck by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout, and sank quickly.
Fifteen people escaped in a lifeboat and were rescued by a nearby sailboat. One body was recovered Monday — that of the ship’s Antigua-born chef, Recaldo Thomas.
Six people remained unaccounted for, including British tech magnate Mike Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter and associates who had successfully defended him in a recent U.S. federal fraud trial.
Investigators from the Termini Imerese Public Prosecutor’s Office, meanwhile, were acquiring evidence for their criminal investigation, which they
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