In a haunting scene at Porticello port on Thursday, rescue crews brought ashore a fifth body from the wreck of the British-flagged superyacht, Bayesian, which sank off Sicily in a devastating storm.
One person remains missing, leaving rescuers and families clinging to a thread of hope as divers continue their painstaking search through the wreckage, now resting 50 meters (164 feet) below the sea.
The Bayesian, a luxurious 56-meter yacht built by the renowned Italian shipyard Perini, was considered nearly unsinkable.
Yet, in the early hours of Monday, it vanished beneath the waves after a waterspout – a tornado over water – slammed into the vessel as it was anchored just a kilometer (half a mile) offshore.
The storm’s fury capsized the yacht within minutes, shocking marine experts who are now questioning how such a catastrophe could occur with a vessel of this caliber.
Among the six missing passengers were British tech magnate Mike Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter, and several associates who had recently celebrated a legal victory in a U.S. federal fraud trial.
Despite the high-profile nature of the victims, Italian authorities have refrained from officially identifying the recovered bodies.
However, reports from the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph suggest that Lynch and his daughter are among the deceased.
Italy's Corriere della Sera has confirmed that the other identified victims include Morgan Stanley banker Jonathan Bloomer and U.S. lawyer Chris Morvillo.
The tragedy unfolded swiftly and with little warning. Fifteen of the 22 passengers and crew aboard managed to escape, including Lynch’s wife.
The body of the yacht’s chef, Recaldo Thomas, a Canadian-Antiguan national, was discovered near the wreck shortly after the incident.
The grim recovery efforts have been likened to those of the Costa Concordia disaster in 2012, as divers navigate the challenging depths and narrow spaces of the submerged yacht.
The cause of the rapid sinking has left experts baffled. Giovanni Constantino, CEO of the Italian Sea Group, which includes Perini, expressed disbelief at the event, calling Bayesian "one of the safest boats in the world" and essentially unsinkable.
He suggested that a series of human errors, rather than the storm alone, might have led to the disaster.
Costantino, citing data from the yacht’s tracking system and available footage, revealed that the yacht sank within just 16 minutes of the storm hitting.
Prosecutors in Termini Imerese have opened an investigation into the sinking, questioning passengers and witnesses as they piece together what went wrong.
Meanwhile, the crew and captain have remained silent, offering no official statements about the tragedy.
The Italian Sea Group is reeling from the disaster, with shares dropping 2.5% as the news spread.