ROME (AP) — A British-flagged luxury superyacht, the Bayesian, which sank off the coast of Sicily on August 19, 2024, resurfaced on Saturday as salvage crews completed a complex recovery operation. The incident resulted in the deaths of U.K. tech magnate Mike Lynch and six others. The vessel was located underwater near Porticello, close to Palermo, and had been submerged for almost a year.
On Saturday, the white top and blue hull of the 56-meter (184-foot) superyacht became visible on the water's surface, though it remained partially submerged in a holding area of a yellow floating crane barge. David Wilson, a spokesman for TMC Maritime, the company responsible for the salvage operation, stated that the pumping out of seawater would continue, and after a series of lifting and resting procedures, the Bayesian would be fully removed from the water.
The local coast guard indicated that the lifting operation was expected to wrap up by early afternoon, followed by technical assessments of the hull. Once the operation concludes, the vessel is set to be transported to the Sicilian port of Termini Imerese, where investigators aim to determine the cause of the sinking.
The Bayesian sank during a violent storm as Lynch was hosting friends for a cruise to celebrate his recent acquittal on fraud charges in the U.S. The tragic incident claimed the lives of Lynch, his daughter, and five others, while fifteen people survived, including the captain and all crew members except for the chef.
Italian authorities are conducting a comprehensive criminal investigation into the sinking. TMC Maritime reported that the vessel was gradually raised from the seabed, located 50 meters (165 feet) down, over the course of three days to ensure secure attachment of lifting straps and harnesses to the hull. Eight steel lifting straps were utilized to keep the hull upright and to facilitate the lifting process.
Once lifted, seawater was pumped out of the hull to prepare the vessel for its eventual journey to shore. After being held upright and checked for safety, the floating crane was scheduled to transport the Bayesian to Termini Imerese, where it will be placed into a special steel cradle for further examination.
The Bayesian is currently missing its 72-meter (236-foot) mast, which was cut off and left on the seabed for later retrieval. Detaching the mast was necessary to facilitate raising the hull to a nearly upright position. An interim report from British investigators, released last month, indicated that the yacht was capsized by "extreme wind" and could not recover once it began to sink.
The report detailed that the Bayesian had selected its location based on forecasts of thunderstorms. However, wind speeds exceeded 70 knots (81 mph) during the storm, causing the vessel to violently tip over to a 90-degree angle in less than 15 seconds.
Mike Lynch, noted for selling Autonomy, a software company he founded in 1996, to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011, was acquitted of fraud charges in June 2024 by a federal court jury in San Francisco.
