Divers of the Vigili del Fuoco, the Italian Corps. of Firefighters leave Porticello harbor near Palermo, to resume research for a last missing person on August 23, 2024, four days after the British-flagged luxury yacht Bayesian sank.
Alberto Pizzoli | Afp | Getty Images
Divers on Friday found the body of the final person missing after a luxury yacht sank off the coast of Northern Italy, the Associated Press news agency said, citing the Italian Coast Guard.
The body has not yet been formally identified. Eighteen-year-old Hannah Lynch, daughter of British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, is the last person that was still believed to be unaccounted for, out of six people that went missing after the superyacht Bayesian sank suddenly during a violent storm in the early hours of Monday morning.
Five bodies have since been retrieved from the yacht’s wreckage, with the following people confirmed dead: British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch; Morgan Stanley International Chair Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, charity trustee Judy Bloomer; Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, jewellery designer Neda Morvillo.
Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian-Antiguan national who was working as a chef onboard, was confirmed dead earlier this week.
It took divers days to locate the missing people due to difficulties accessing the inside of the wreck, which is lying at a depth of around 50 meters, has narrow access points and is surrounded by objects.
Another 15 people who were on the boat when it sank were rescued on Monday, including Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares and a one-year-old baby and her parents.
Lynch was the founder of enterprise software firm Autonomy. He became the target of a protracted legal battle with Hewlett Packard after the firm accused Lynch of inflating Autonomy’s value in an $11.7 billion sale. HP took an $8.8 billion write-down on the value of the company within a year of buying it.
Lynch was acquitted in June of fraud charges in a surprise victory in U.S. court following a trial that lasted for three months.
The yacht trip is believed to have been a celebration of his acquittal. Clifford Chance’s Morvillo represented Lynch in the trial, while Morgan Stanley’s Bloomer testified for the defense.
Lynch was also founder of Invoke Capital, a venture capital firm endorsing European tech startups. He became a key voice supporting the U.K. technology industry, backing key names like cybersecurity firm Darktrace and legal tech firm Luminance.