Superyacht wreck: Engineer, deckhand to be investigated over Bayesian sinking

Aug. 28 (UPI) -- The chief engineer and a deckhand of Mike Lynch's superyacht that capsized and sank off the coast of Sicily with the loss of seven lives are being investigated by Italian prosecutors for manslaughter.

Tim Parker Eaton, the ship engineer, is under suspicion of failing to protect the engine room and operating systems while Matthew Griffith, the deckhand, is being looked at because he was on night watch duty when the 184-foot Bayesian went down in a freak storm in the early hours of Aug. 19, according to a judicial source quoted by The Independent and The Guardian .

The two Britons join the captain, 51-year-old New Zealander James Cutfield, who was placed under investigation Monday, a day after prosecutors questioned him for two hours about how the vessel sank when experts said it should have been unsinkable if operated correctly.

People who are under investigation in Italy must be officially notified before autopsies can be conducted by authorities, so being the subject of a judicial probe does not mean a person is guilty of any offense or that formal charges are likely.

Legal counsel for Cutfield, who had been cooperating with prosecutors prior to a third round of questioning Tuesday, have advised him to temporarily cease answering questions until they are able to get up to speed on the case and to give himself time to recuperate from his ordeal.

"He just exercised his right to remain silent, probably prosecutors were expecting that," said lawyer Aldo Mordiglia.

"Firstly, he is very distressed. Second, we were appointed only on Monday and to mount a thorough and correct defense we need to acquire a set of data that at the moment we don't have."

British tech-billionaire Mike Lynch, his 19-year-old daughter Hannah Lynch, and five other people were killed when his $39 million luxury yacht sank within minutes after being struck by a powerful downdraft during a storm while anchored off the fishing village of Porticello.

Six bodies were recovered by divers from inside the wreck of the Bayesian 164 feet down on the seabed in a major four-day air-sea search and rescue mission that concluded Friday.

The body of the ship's chef Recaldo Thomas, had earlier been pulled from the water in the hours immediately following the sinking which occurred at about 4 a.m. local time when people were asleep.

Cutfield, Parker Eaton, Griffith and the rest of the eight-strong crew, Lynch's wife Angela Bacares and four other passengers escaped on the Bayesian's emergency life raft and were subsequently rescued by other vessels nearby.

The crew remain on the island in case prosecutors require further information from them but the other survivors flew out on a private plane Sunday.

The prosecutor's office in nearby Termini Imerese has been reviewing phone footage and pictures captured by local people on the night of the storm

They have also been provided with surveillance camera video collected by the coastguard from private homes, businesses and public spaces in the hope the images may shed light on what happened.