Autopsies on the seven people who died on the superyacht Bayesian will begin today as it emerged the operation to lift the vessel will cost at least £15 million.
British tech billionaire Mike Lynch, 59, and his daughter Hannah, 18, who was due to start at Oxford university in September, were among those who lost their lives when the yacht sank.
Raising the 56m yacht – which went down after being hit by freak weather on August 19 off the coast of Porticello near Palermo on the Italian island of Sicily – will be vital to the judicial investigation.
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Prosecutors have so far placed three people under official investigation for causing a disaster and multiple manslaughter and they include the Bayesian’s captain New Zealander James Cutfield.
Two other British crew members – chief engineer Tim Roper Eaton and watchman Matthew Griffiths are also being probed and all have been questioned by the prosecutor at Termini Immerse but have now left the island.
Among theories being investigated are whether proper procedures were carried out by the drew to secure the yacht ahead of the storm which had been forecast and which had stopped trawlers heading out to sea.
Giovanni Costantino, of the Italian Sea Group, which owns Perini Navi, who built the Bayesian has already claimed the yacht was ‘unsinkable’ and that human error led to the sinking, with possibly hatches and portholes left open.
There will also be focus on the keel of Bayesian which should have been deployed to its maximum length to help stability in and weather.
Raising the vessel will be a joint operation between the insurers and the owners of the yacht Revtom – an Isle of Man based company which has Mr Lynch’s wife Angela, who survived the sinking, as sole director.
A salvage company has yet to be appointed for the operation which experts say could take at least six weeks.
Aldo Mordiglia, lawyer for Mr Cutfield, 51, told MailOnline he expected the complicated procedure to ‘start in October possibly’ and that it would ‘be vital for the investigation the yacht was raised’.
According to maritime code it is up to the owner of the yacht to sort out salvaging the Bayesian, but the judicial authorities will also play a key part.
Experts also want to raise her as quickly as possible because there are fears over the 18,000 litres of fuel onboard and an environmental ship is circling the area ready to deploy protective booms to control any potential spillage.
Diver Giuseppe Petrone – who was among those who entered the vessel – told MailOnline: ‘There are personal effects in the Bayesian which will be recovered at some stage, my task was juts to recover the bodies but there are phones and other items there.’
La Repubblica newspaper said the vessel contained ‘telephones, money and laptop computers as well as jewellery’ which would all have to be returned to its owners and as well as the contents of onboard safes.
A 200 metre exclusion one has been placed around the Bayesian and the area is constantly patrolled by coastguard vessels and police launches.
Experts Mike Sloane and Giovanni Ceccarelli, who worked on the recovery of the Costa Concordia, when it sank in 2012, said:’The sailing ship must be recovered in one piece, only the mast can be sacrificed.’
Raffaele Macauda, commander of the Port Authority and the Coast Guard of Palermo, said:’We are monitoring the environmental impact and we can assure you that there have been no fuel spills.
‘After that, we await the first plan from the shipping company to empty the tanks, the first step in the recovery.’
The first four autopsies are scheduled for this morning on the bodies of the Bayesian victims: the English banker Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judith, the American lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Nada.
The tests on the other three victims, the English tycoon Mike Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah and the ship’s cook Recaldo Thomas have been scheduled for the first few days of next week.
The autopsies, considered unrepeatable tests, will be attended by the consultants of the injured parties and the three suspects.
Source: Daily Mail UK
