Italian officials have confirmed that the body of British tech magnate Mike Lynch has been recovered from the wreckage of a superyacht that sank off the coast of Sicily early Monday. Of the six missing, five bodies have been recovered, with only Lynch's 18-year-old daughter Hannah currently unaccounted for.
The 184-foot-long British-registered Bayesian is believed to have been hit by a tornado-like waterspout shortly before dawn on Monday as violent storms swept through the area. Of the 12 passengers and 10 crew members the ship was carrying, 15 were rescued at the scene. The body of the yacht's chef, Recaldo Thomas was recovered from the area near where the accident occurred shortly after.
Search and rescue teams pulled four bodies from the wreckage on Wednesday, and Salvatore Cocina, head of Sicily’s civil protection agency, told NBC News that a fifth body had been recovered on Thursday. CNBC likewise reported that one of the bodies recovered belonged to Lynch.
Underwater debris was said to have played a factor in the response time, as divers were restricted to 12-minute shifts underwater and were initially unable to breach the cabins from the common areas of the ship.
Though Thomas is the only victim to officially be confirmed dead by authorities, the other passengers presumed dead aside from Lynch and his daughter include Morgan Stanley chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Judy as well as Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda.
As recovery efforts have entered their final stages, Massimo Mariani, an interior ministry official, told Reuters that the body of Lynch's daughter could still be inside the wreck, or may have gone overboard into the sea as the boat sank.
Lynch had chartered the expedition to celebrate his acquittal in a long drawn-out legal battle in which he was accused of fraud for inflating the value of his software company Autonomy in an $11.7 billion sale to Hewlett Packard in 2011. The 59-year-old, who was often compared to "Britain's Bill Gates," was cleared of wire fraud and conspiracy charges in June following a three-month trial.
Following news of Lynch's death, Britain's Royal Academy of Engineering, which counted him as one of its fellows, said in a statement on social media that it was "deeply saddened" to learn of the magnate's death and sent its "profound condolences to his family."
"Mike became a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2008 and we have fond memories of the active role he played in the past, as a mentor, donor and former Council member," the statement read. "He was also one of the inaugural members on the Enterprise Committee."
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