Manslaughter charges may be brought over Bayesian superyacht horror that left 4 Brits dead…as wreck to be raised in DAYS
MANSLAUGHTER charges could be brought over the Bayesian superyacht horror that left four Brits dead - with the wreck to be raised in days.
Suffolk Coroner’s Court was told today how separate criminal investigations are being conducted in the UK by the Maritime Coastguard Agency and by prosecutors in Sicily.
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The inquest is being conducted into the deaths of the four British victims Dr Mike Lynch, 59, his daughter Hannah, 18, and his friends, Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer, 70, and his wife Judy Bloomer, 71.
The families of three of the victims are said to have “concerns” about safety issues with the 184ft yacht, which sank in a storm while at anchor off the coast of Porticello in the early hours of August 19.
A pre-inquest review hearing was also told an interim report by the UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch is expected to be published in four to six weeks time.
Operations to salvage the Bayesian from its position on the 160ft deep seabed are due to start on Sunday and are expected to take several weeks.
Mark Cam, an inspector for the Maritime Coastguard Agency, said that MCA investigators hoped to examine the Bayesian when it was back on shore as it is a “primary” source of evidence.
He added that the MCA had already commissioned a report from the Meteorological Office into the weather at the time of the sinking.
Billionaire Dr Lynch was celebrating being cleared of a massive fraud over the sale of Autonomy to computer giant Hewlett-Packard in 2011 when the Bayesian went down.
The other victims were US lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo, and Canadian-Antiguan chef Recaldo Thomas. A further 15 people were rescued.
Lawyer James Healy-Pratt, representing the families of Mr Thomas and the Bloomers, said their loved ones had “concerns there may be issues with safety”.
He added: “The owner of the Bayesian had legal obligations including the seaworthiness of the vessel and due diligence”.
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He requested the owners and managers of the boat be made “interested persons” during the proceedings.
Mr Healy-Pratt also called for the Australian insurers of the yacht QBE, trading as British Marine, to be given the same status, saying: “I would expect cover of £100 million to £200 million by way of marine insurance.”
Maritime Coastguard Agency Mr Cam told the hearing that the MCA was conducting an investigation into the tragedy in parallel to the Italian authorities.
He said: “We are looking at whether there has been culpability in breaches of maritime legislation.
"The Italians are conducting a criminal investigation which incorporates the equivalent of manslaughter.”
Describing the investigation as “very much ongoing”, he said: “We have taken a number of witness statements and will be looking to take witness statements from the remaining crew members.
“Virtually all the crew members do not live in the UK. When we take evidence from a foreign jurisdiction. We are reliant on the foreign jurisdiction allowing us to take evidence.”
Suffolk Coroner Nigel Parsley adjourned the hearing for a date for another pre-hearing on a date to be fixed in September or October.
The full inquest is expected it last five to ten days.
Initial investigations revealed that four victims survived the sinking off Sicily but died in an air pocket.
Of the 22 onboard, 15 survived with 11, including Mike Lynch's wife, rescued on an inflatable life raft.
Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah was the last passenger to be discovered in the third cabin.
The 184 ft Bayesian was carrying 22 people when it sank within minutes of being hit by a downburst - a strong, localised wind - while anchored in Porticello near Palermo.
The luxury vessel was caught up in a tornado which caused it to sink in the early hours of the morning.
Fifteen of those on board were rescued on a life raft, while the yacht’s cook Recaldo Thomas was discovered dead in the water shortly afterwards.
Specialist divers recovered the bodies of billionaire Lynch, 59, and four of his guests, from the first cabin on the left.
Officials said the victims had scrambled to reach air pockets in the yacht, which sank 164ft stern-first before rolling onto its right side on the seabed.
Chief Prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio said the victims would have been asleep when a tornado-like waterspout struck the boat, leaving them unable to escape.
Lynch had just won a court case over the sale of Autonomy to tech giant HP after being accused of fraudulently raising the price.
The 59-year-old had been living under house arrest in San Francisco, US, with just his beloved dog Faucet for company, for well over a year.
He was finally acquitted just months ago and spoke about longing to spend time with his wife, Angela Bacares and their two daughters.
In 1996, he started software company Autonomy, which would be used to analyse huge swathes of data from unstructured sources like phone calls, emails and videos.
Describing his small team he said: “Eccentric people working really hard on a project. No bureaucracy. No admin. Lots of late nights, lots of eating cold pizza”.
By Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
Data recovered from the Bayesian's Automatic Identification System (AIS) breaks down exactly how it sank in a painful minute-by-minute timeline.
At 3.50am on Monday August 19 the Bayesian began to shake "dangerously" during a fierce storm, Italian outlet Corriere revealed.
Just minutes later at 3.59am the boat's anchor gave way, with a source saying the data showed there was "no anchor left to hold".
After the ferocious weather ripped away the boat's mooring it was dragged some 358 metres through the water.
By 4am it had began to take on water and was plunged into a blackout, indicating that the waves had reached its generator or even engine room.
At 4.05am the Bayesian fully disappeared underneath the waves.
An emergency GPS signal was finally emitted at 4.06am to the coastguard station in Bari, a city nearby, alerting them that the vessel had sunk.
Early reports suggested the disaster struck around 5am local time off the coast of Porticello Harbour in Palermo, Sicily.
The new data pulled from the boat's AIS appears to suggest it happened an hour earlier at around 4am.
Some 15 of the 22 onboard were rescued, 11 of them scrambling onto an inflatable life raft that sprung up on the deck.
A smaller nearby boat - named Sir Robert Baden Powell - then helped take those people to shore.
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