Yacht rescue teams ‘could be listening for timed banging noise’ from vessel

Rescue teams trying to access the yacht that sank off the coast of Sicily could be listening out for a timed banging noise, an expert has said.

A maritime diving and wreckage expert also warned the teams would face “a big choice” between salvaging the wreck or rescuing bodies as their efforts intensify.

Bayesian was moored around half a mile off the coast of Porticello when it sank at about 5am local time on Monday as the area was hit by a storm.

The Italian Coastguard has not ruled out the possibility that those missing, including technology tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, may still be alive, with experts speculating air pockets could have formed as the yacht sank.

The vessel is now resting on the seabed off the coast at a depth of 50 metres, with rescue divers limited to 12-minute underwater shifts.

Italy’s fire brigade Vigili del Fuoco said it was developing a plan to enter the wreckage of Bayesian but that the operation was “complex”.

Dr Jean-Baptiste Souppez, a senior lecturer of mechanical, biomedical and design engineering at Birmingham’s Aston University , said the next 24 hours were “crucial” to find survivors trapped inside the wreck.

“Superyachts such as the Bayesian are designed according to regulations that impose watertight subdivisions,” he said.

“The speed at which the vessel sank (a few minutes, according to survivor and witness accounts) and the fact that it remains intact and on its side could favour the formation of small air pockets inside.

“This is obviously highly speculative and impossible to predict accurately.”

Dr Souppez cited examples of survivors being found in such air pockets including the case of a man who survived after being trapped for three days.

He said: “A sign the rescuers may be looking for is a banging noise at regular intervals.

“This is common practice on submarines and was one of the signs the search mission for the Titan submarine was looking for after it went missing last year.

“But whether air pockets formed on the Bayesian is simply impossible to predict.”

Speaking to BBC News about what caused the sinking, Dr Souppez said: “We now have reports from the divers that the vessel is pretty much intact so that very much hints at extreme winds on a rather large-sized rig, causing the vessel to keel over and then most likely start taking on water, which would then lead to a very fast sinking.”

He said the yacht could tilt further than 90 degrees into the water in very strong winds, causing it to take on “very large amounts of water through a number of the openings”.

Bertrand Sciboz, a maritime diving and wreckage expert at French company Ceres , told BBC News: “I think 50 metres is a limit to dive with a certain category of professional divers, so you will need to dive with some kind of helmet and pipe and [be] connected to the surface for oxygen, and also for speaking and hearing and telling what you see and do.

“It’s always very difficult, and especially with a sailing vessel, because you’ve got rope everywhere, you’ve got a sail which is floating in the current because we are in the Mediterranean Sea and not in the English Channel.

“But the main thing, you know, it’s the fact that in those kind of conditions, it’s very hard to go inside the wreck, and they will have to have to make a big choice at one moment, of salvaging the whole wreck or rescuing the bodies.”