Why did Bayesian yacht sink in 16 minutes?

Until midnight last Sunday, Matteo Cannia sat on a bench in Porticello overlooking the sea. It’s too hot to sleep.

The 78-year-old, a fisherman since he was 10 years old, saw the first flash of lightning. “I heard thunder and wind and decided to go home,” he told me.

“As the storm intensified, everyone was awake. Water was pouring into my friend’s house.”

At around 4:15 a.m. local time, fisherman Fabio Cefalù suddenly saw the flare rising. Decided not to go.

He changed his mind and went out to sea to see what was going on, only to find cushions and floating planks.

A luxury superyacht named Bayes was anchored a few hundred meters away and had sunk.

This all happened in a 16-minute disaster windowchaos and torture, putting a sleepy Sicilian fishing port at the center of world news.

All but seven of the 22 passengers aboard the Bayes climbed into life rafts as the yacht began to capsize. Others never figured it out.

British woman Charlotte Golunski and her one-year-old daughter Sophie were thrown into the water. She recounted how she held her baby with all her strength in the air to prevent herself from drowning. “It was dark around me,” she said. “The only thing I could hear was other people screaming.”

She, her children and her husband James were among those rescued by the captain of a nearby sailboat. Her colleagues are trapped inside a sinking Bayesian Mike Lynch ——One of the top technology entrepreneurs in the UK, known as the “Bill Gates of Britain”.

Mr Lynch spent an idyllic holiday on his luxury boat with family, friends and colleagues: the luxurious 56-metre (184-foot) sailing yacht has won design awards and boasts the world’s tallest aluminum Mast making.

In June, he was acquitted after a lengthy trial in the United States on charges that he fraudulently inflated the value of his company, Autonomy, before selling it to Hewlett-Packard in 2011. To commemorate his recovery.

Divers recovered his body from the wreckage three days after the yacht sank.

A day later, the body of his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, who was due to start studying at Oxford University next month, was found.

Others killed include Jonathan Bloomer, president of investment bank Morgan Stanley, and his wife Judy; Mr Lynch’s lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda (Neda); and the yacht’s chef, Recaldo Thomas. Mr. Lynch is survived by his wife, Angela Bacares;

The family released a statement speaking of their “unspeakable sadness”, adding they were “shocked and devastated”.

Experts were stunned by how quickly the superyacht sank while other nearby smaller boats survived the storm unscathed.

in a Press conference to be held this weekend – Officials’ first public statement since the disaster – Local prosecutors said they had opened an investigation into potential manslaughter and negligent boating crimes.

Ambrogio Catosio, the state prosecutor for the area, told reporters that while the investigation was in the very early stages and no specific person was under investigation, “there is a lot of possibility of culpability.” It could just be the captain. It could be the entire crew… We are absolutely not ruling anything out”.

A team of British marine investigators was also sent to Sicily to work with their Italian counterparts.

Prosecutors say they now believe Downburst is a weather phenomenon The ship was struck by locally strong winds from thunderstorms that spread unpredictably.

This contradicts previous reports, which identified the cause as waterspoutor a mini tornado at sea.

Regardless, it’s clear that extreme weather plays a significant role.

The main focus of the investigation team is of course the conduct of the captain, 51-year-old James Cutfield from New Zealand. He and eight crew members survived and are being questioned.

“We did not see it coming,” he told Italian media in his only public comments so far, alluding to the storm.

The thing is: a lot of other people did it too. High winds and rainfall are expected after several days of sweltering heat. Giovanni Costantino, head of the company that built the Bayes, told me he was convinced there was a litany of errors on board.

“At the back of the boat, a hatch must have been open,” he said, “but there might have been a side door to let the water pour in.

“Before a storm approaches, the captain should close all openings, raise anchor, turn on the engine, tack into the wind and lower the keel.”

The keel is a large, fin-like part of the boat that protrudes from the bottom.

“This will stabilize the vessel and they will be able to ride through the storm and continue to sail comfortably,” he said.

Rescuers found the wreckage of the Bayes 50 meters underwater The nearly 10-meter-long keel rises.

If deployed, it could help fight the wind on Bayes’s 75-meter-tall aluminum mast and keep the ship stable. But experts told La Repubblica that wind gusts of 100 kilometers per hour (62 mph) are enough to capsize ships, and Monday’s storm far exceeded that.

“The Bayes has become a model for many other ships because of its stability and exceptional performance,” said Mr. Costantino. “There’s absolutely no problem. If the water hadn’t come in, it wouldn’t have sunk.

He told me that there were 16 minutes between the loss of power on the ship at 03:56 (indicating that water flooded the circuit area) and the loss of the GPS signal (indicating the moment the ship sank).

Investigators will take a closer look at this period and any measures taken to mitigate the extreme weather, especially after they find the ship’s black box recorder.

Rino Casilli, one of Sicily’s top ship surveyors, also believes errors could leave yachts vulnerable to extreme weather.

“Given the storm warning, there should be two crew members taking turns to watch overnight,” he told me as he led me aboard his boat, about one-third the size of the Bayes. “It should be anchored in a port, not at sea.”

It’s unclear how many, if any, people were on duty that night.

From his sailboat we had a rare trip to the site where the Bayes sank.

An Italian police boat circled around us, giving us a warning. Suddenly, the divers began to bustle as other rescue boats arrived.

We didn’t know it at the time – but they had just discovered more bodies.

For rescue teams, rescuing people trapped in the wreckage is an extremely challenging operation. Given its depth (50 meters underwater), each diver can stay underwater for 10 minutes before returning to the surface to ensure safety – a total of 120 dives. They were assisted by remotely operated vehicles that could operate on the seafloor for longer periods of time.

At a press conference this weekend, rescuers said passengers trapped inside the ship during the sinking took refuge in a cabin on the left side of the ship, where the final bubble formed.

Five bodies have been found They said it was in the first hut on the left, while the last body – identified as Hannah Lynch – was in the third hut on the left.

Access for emergency teams was extremely difficult as the yacht was largely intact and its furniture blocked access.

The Coast Guard likened it to “an 18-story building filled with water.” First responders at the port applauded their colleagues as Ms Lynch’s body was brought ashore.

All seven deceased have been sent to the morgue for autopsies.

Rescuers now need to decide whether and how to recover the wreckage, which will undoubtedly provide important clues into what happened. But it is estimated that bringing the Bayesian model to the surface could take six to eight weeks and cost €15m (£12.7m).

While divers’ painstaking work of retrieving the dead has ended, investigators’ harrowing search for answers has only just begun.

They and survivors took shelter in a hotel near Porticello, where journalists were strictly off-limits. Security immediately asked us to leave.

Unraveling the mystery of the Bayesian incident is critical not only to helping the victims’ loved ones reach some kind of closure, but also for the shipping industry to reach conclusions.

Captain James Catfield was a “respected” sailor who had worked on ships his entire life, his brother said. Did the veteran sailor make a series of catastrophic mistakes? Nautilus, the union representing seafarers and captains, called for restraint in passing judgment on the Bayesian crew.

“Any attempt to question their actions without having all the facts is not only unfair, but detrimental to the process of uncovering the truth and learning from this tragedy,” the statement read.

The world’s media has begun to leave Porticello, and the place is gradually returning to its pre-Bayesian tranquility. Stray cats roam the old fishing boats and children play as families eat at one of the few seaside restaurants.

But the events of the past week have left many here shocked and scarred.

“Last Sunday night we saw the end of the world in Porticello,” said resident Maria Vizzo. “We have never seen anything like this. Everyone here is shocked – everyone is crying.