Questions abound over what caused the superyacht to sink so quickly while a nearby sailing vessel was largely saved.
Divers searching for the wreckage of a superyacht that sank off Sicily have found the bodies of five passengers and are searching for one more as questions intensify over why the boat sank so quickly when a nearby sailboat remained largely unharmed.
Rescue teams unloaded three body bags from rescue ships that arrived at the port of Porticello on Wednesday.
Salvatore Cocina, head of Sicily's civil protection agency, said two other bodies were also found in the rubble.
The bodies of British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, were among those found inside one of the ship's cabins, between two mattresses, The Telegraph reported.
The Bayesian, a 56-metre (180-foot) British-flagged yacht, sank in a storm early Monday while moored about a kilometre (1 mile) off the coast. Civil protection officials said they believed the ship was hit by an overwater tornado, known as a waterspout, and sank rapidly.
Fifteen people escaped in a lifeboat and were rescued by a nearby sailing vessel. One body was recovered on Monday: that of the yacht's chef, Recaldo Thomas, who was born in Antigua.
Lynch, 59, was one of Britain's best-known technology entrepreneurs and had invited friends to join him on the yacht to celebrate his recent acquittal in a US fraud trial.
In addition to Lynch and her daughter, the other people missing after the disaster were Judy and Jonathan Bloomer, non-executive chairman of Morgan Stanley International; and Clifford Chance's lawyer, Chris Morvillo, and his wife, Neda Morvillo.
The yacht remains lying on its side at the bottom of the sea, 50 metres below the surface, a depth that required special precautions that complicated the recovery efforts. Divers can only stay on the boat for 8 to 10 minutes before having to come to the surface.
Investigators from the Termini Imerese Public Prosecutor's Office were gathering evidence for the criminal investigation opened immediately after the tragedy, although no formal suspects have been publicly identified.
Questions abound over what caused the superyacht, built in 2008 by Italian shipyard Perini Navi, to sink so quickly, when the nearby sailing ship Sir Robert Baden Powell was largely spared and managed to rescue all 15 survivors.
Experts want to know what the position of the keel was, which on a large sailing ship like the Bayesian might have been retractable to allow it to enter shallower harbours, or whether an unexpected waterspout hit the ship and simply pushed it to one side.
“There is a lot of uncertainty about whether it had a lifting keel and whether it could have been up,” said Jean-Baptiste Souppez, a member of the Royal Institute of Naval Architects and editor of the Journal of Sailing Technology.
“But if that were the case, it would reduce the stability of the ship and therefore make it easier for it to tip over onto its side,” he said in an interview.
Yachts like the Bayesian must also have watertight subcompartments that are specifically designed to prevent rapid and catastrophic sinking even when some parts fill with water.
“For the ship to sink, especially at this speed, water would need to rise on board very quickly, but also in several places along the ship, again indicating that it could have turned on its side,” Souppez said.
