Reports: Autopsies of superyacht shipwreck victims show they suffocated in cabins

Sept. 5 (UPI) -- An initial round of autopsies shows some of the people who died in the sinking of the Bayesian superyacht off Sicily last month succumbed to asphyxiation after initially surviving in an air bubble, according to reports.

Autopsies on four of the seven victims performed by Italian authorities were completed Wednesday. They included British attorney Chris Morvillo, his wife, Neda, Morgan Stanley banking executive Jonathan Bloomer and his wife, Anne Elizabeth Judith.

CNN, citing unnamed officials, reported all four were found to have died from "dry drowning," or suffocation, while sources told the Guardian the Morvillos "did not have water in their lungs, trachea and stomach," indicating they survived for some time while trapped in the sunken luxury vessel.

They and five others, including the ship's owner, British tech-billionaire Mike Lynch and his 19-year-old daughter Hannah Lynch, were killed when the $39 million yacht sank within minutes after being struck by a powerful downdraft during a storm while anchored off the Sicilian fishing village of Porticello.

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

The Guardian's source said the autopsies revealed the Morvillos succumbed to "death by confinement," which if correct would confirm accounts of rescuers who said they found the bodies of passengers trapped in the cabins.

The source cautioned, however, that the autopsy results remain "provisional."

Italy's official Institute of Forensic Medicine had not released any official information about the autopsies as of Thursday afternoon.

The captain of the ship, the engineering officer and the sailor who was on duty on the bridge at the time of shipwreck are being investigated for possible manslaughter charges.