Italian prosecutors on Saturday announced they’ve opened a manslaughter and “culpable shipwreck” investigation into the sinking of a British-flagged superyacht in Italy earlier this week.
The Bayesian, a luxury 184-foot sailing yacht, sank more than 160 feet in the early hours of Monday after capsizing during a storm off the coast of Sicily. Seven people were killed, including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his teenage daughter.
Ambrogio Cartosio, the chief prosecutor of Sicilian town Termini Imerese, confirmed Saturday his team was investigating the possible causes of the deadly shipwreck and whether any crimes were committed.
“Behaviors that were not perfectly in order” may have contributed to the fatalities, Cartosio said at a news conference, while noting the investigation is still in its early stages.
“For me, it is probable that offenses were committed, that it could be a case of manslaughter, but we can only establish that if you give us the time to investigate,” he said.
Prosecutors are looking into whether the captain, crew members, ship manufacturer Perini Navi, or any others can be held responsible for the tragedy.
They’re primarily focused on how the ship, described as “unsinkable” by the builder, sank so quickly while a nearby sailboat sustained only minimal damage in the storm. They’re also asking why almost all of the crew was saved but several passengers remained trapped in the hull.
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The investigation has just begun.
While Cartosio is looking into possible “culpable shipwreck and multiple manslaughter,” the investigation is currently not directed at any specific individual or organization.
“We are only in the initial phase of the investigation. We can’t exclude any sort of development at present,” he said.
A total of 22 people, including guests and crew members, were aboard the 2008-built luxury cutter when it rapidly sank to the bottom of the ocean early Monday morning.
The body of the ship’s chef, Recaldo Thomas, was recovered shortly after the sinking, while 15 people, including Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, escaped in a lifeboat and were rescued by the nearby sailboat.
The remaining six victims were declared missing later on Monday, sparking a massive rescue and recovery operation that lasted five days and captured the world’s attention.
Search teams battled short diving windows and rough conditions when scouring the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.
Bodies have been found and identified.
On Thursday, Italian authorities officially identified the recovered bodies of five victims who had been found a day earlier. They were New York City-based lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo; Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy Bloomer; and 59-year-old Mike Lynch, who was reportedly celebrating his recent acquittal on fraud charges in the US.
The body of the billionaire’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah Lynch, was pulled from the wreckage on Friday just before 1 p.m. local time.
Deputy Prosecutor Raffaele Cammarano, who’s heading the investigation, said during the news conference that the “sudden and unexpected” event that sank the ship was a downburst, described by the National Weather Service as “powerful winds that descend from a thunderstorm and spread out quickly once they hit the ground.”
Italian civil protection officials initially believed the Bayesian had been struck by a powerful waterspout, a tornado-like phenomenon often associated with severe thunderstorms.
-by Muri Assunção, New York Daily News (TNS)
With News Wire Services
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