Two bodies recovered from Bayesian superyacht are Mike Lynch and daughter Hannah, 18, as divers find 5 victims on wreck

TWO of the bodies recovered from the Bayesian superyacht have been confirmed as tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his teenage daughter Hannah.

Divers have also recovered an additional three victims while scouring the wreck – leaving just one more missing after the tragic shipwreck disaster off the coast of Sicily.

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Billionaire Mr Lynch, 59, – known as “Britain’s Bill Gates” – and his daughter Hannah, 18, were both brought to land earlier today.

Two unidentified sets of remains have also been brought to shore – leaving families with an agonising wait for news.

And a fifth body was found late on Wednesday in the wreck of the Bayesian.

It is a heartbreaking end to the desperate search as divers tirelessly scoured the wreck sitting 160ft under the sea near Porticello.

The ultra-luxurious yacht plunged beneath waves in the early hours of Monday after being hammered by a rare “Black Swan” water tornado .

Sleeping party guests and crew were suddenly awoken and forced to flee for their lives – with some 15 of the 22 onboard managing to escape.

But tragically Mr Lynch, his daughter and their friends – Jonathan and Judy Bloomer & Chris and Neda Morvillo – went down with the yacht.

And the boat’s chef Ricardo Thomas was found dead in the water on Monday.

The official death toll stands at six – with one more set of remains believed to be trapped on the yacht.

The tech tycoon’s wife – Angela Bacares, 57 – was one of those who managed to escape in a tiny liferaft as the vessel capsized and was dragged down in the storm.

Italian rescue crews launched a desperate three day search – with hopes there could be a miracle for those trapped on board.

The first two bodies found today were discovered trapped by mattresses inside a cabin, reports La Repubblica.

Ambulances have been seen driving away from the harbour after the remains were pulled up by divers.

Sicily civil protection director-general Salvo Cocina told The Telegraph: “On behalf of myself and my colleagues, I would like to express my deepest sympathy to the families of the victims and express our condolences to them at this difficult time.”

Around 50 emergency workers are still helping with the search.

Eight divers from across Italy are still tirelessly exploring the wreck trying to locate the remaining two missing passengers.

The UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch has now opened up its own investigation into the sinking of the Bayesian.

Out of 12 passengers and 10 crew, 15 were rescued from the water including a one-year-old British girl and her mum .

The Italian coastguard has vowed not to give up until it finds all of those feared dead inside the sunken yacht.

Captain of the doomed superyacht James Cutfield, 51, was grilled by cops for over two hours after divers discovered the boat’s keel was raised – caused by a possible fatal mistake by the crew.

It comes as…

• The bodies of Mike Lynch & his daughter Hannah, 18, were recovered from the sunken superyacht
• Another two bodies were found in the search for the missing passengers
• Lynch’s shell-shocked wife revealed how she was awoken by a ’tilt’ as the yacht sank
• The captain of the Bayesian broke his silence on the horror storm and was quizzed by cops for over two hours
• Experts believe the yacht’s ‘tallest mast in the world’ may have contributed to the disaster after a freak ‘Black Swan’ weather event struck
• Pictures showed the tiny raft that saved up to 15 people
• Frantic text messages from the survivors revealed the chaos

Police , who have been interviewing survivors from the tragedy, questioned the captain for several hours about the disaster, Giornale Di Sicilia reported.

The desperate search entered its third day today with dramatic footage showing firefighters, helicopters, police and divers scouring the sea.

Rescuers deployed an underwater drone robot to assist in the search mission with pictures showing divers operating it from a boat on the surface.

It can remain underwater for up to seven hours at a depth of 300m, recording helpful images and video.

Divers finally reached the “master cabin” late this morning – possibly where the captain stayed – according to Italian outlet Giornale Di Sicilia .

Later reports said they had made it to the area near the passenger cabins, where the coastguard believes the six tourists were trapped.

Although the 184ft yacht is lying “practically intact” on its side at the bottom of the sea, rescuers have been struggling to get inside for several days.

Diver Marco Tilotta said there was a “world of objects” including furniture and debris obstructing the narrow stairs in front of the cabins .

Rescuers have also been working against a time crunch as they only have 10 minutes to search per dive.

Luca Cari, head of the local Fire Brigade, explained: “They can stay underwater for a maximum of 12 minutes, two of which are needed to go up and down.

“So the real time to be able to carry out the search is 10 minutes per dive.”

Italian outlet E News said Cari told them the dive teams have faced “considerable difficulties” during the search.

He said: “It’s a small Concordia.

“The spaces inside the ship are very small and if you encounter an obstacle it is very complicated to move forward, just as it is very difficult to find alternative routes.”

Who was Mike Lynch?

FORMER billionaire entrepreneur Mike Lynch has been found today after a £14m luxury yacht capsized in a tornado off the coast of Sicily Monday morning.

The tech tycoon, dubbed “Britain’s Bill Gates”, was one of the 22 people sailing onboard the £166,000 a week vessel.

Lynch, 59, was a serial entrepreneur having founded and sold tech and software companies with one of his biggest being Autonomy Corporation.

He was also been involved in Invoke Capital and cybersecurity company Darktrace.

As well as being awarded an OBE for his services to enterprise in 2006.

Born in Ilford, Lynch had a firefighter father from County Cork and a nurse mother from County Tipperary.

Away from work, Mike was happily married to wife Angela Bacares and the pair had two children together.

Angela is among those who have been rescued on the superyacht.

In 2023, the Sunday Times rich list set the couple’s value at £852m.

But Mike was extradited to the US on fraud charges back in 2023 with a judge setting his bail at £79m.

Just weeks ago, Lynch was acquitted of criminal charges by a jury in San Francisco after a 12-year legal battle over the $11bn sale of his firm, Autonomy, to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.

The doomed yacht, named Bayesian, is also said to be owned by the Lynch family.

Reuters

The Concordia was a cruise ship that hit a rock underwater and capsized, killing 33 , in 2012.

The boat capsized at around 5am local time on Monday when the mast collapsed off the coast of Sicily during extreme weather .

Torrential rain and wind battered much of the Porticello port in Palermo overnight on Sunday – striking the superyacht with swirling columns of air that formed waterspouts.

Witnesses said a twister snapped the 246ft boat mast – the world’s second tallest – clean in half.

Others told Italian outlet Ansa that the anchor was down when the storm hit on Monday morning, causing the boat to lose its balance.

It comes as maritime experts believe the yacht may have been sunk by a freak “Black Swan” waterspout which would have appeared without warning.

Matthew Schanck, chairman of the Maritime Search and Rescue Council, told The Times : “Looking at the extreme weather, if it was a waterspout, which it appears to be, it’s what I would class as like a black swan event.

“And if the waterspout ends up dumping a load of that water on board the vessel, that’s going to cause significant damage.”

Extremely rare and unpredictable weather patterns that have severe impacts – like this waterspout – are known as “black swan events”.

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