PORTICELLO, Sicily (AP) 鈥� Police divers resumed searching Tuesday for believed trapped in the hull of a in deep seas off Sicily, including Mike Lynch, who was celebrating his recent acquittal on fraud charges with the people who had defended him at trial.
The luxury sailboat, off Porticello near Palermo, was about 50 meters (164 feet) underwater 鈥� far deeper than most recreational divers are certified for and a depth that requires special precautions. Recovery crews could only stay for 12-minute shifts, a measure that slowed efforts to reach the cramped inside of the wreck.
Divers tag-teamed the shifts and were using a remote-controlled underwater vehicle, or ROV, to help in the search. They hadn't been able to access the below-deck cabins because they were blocked by furniture that shifted during the violent storm that early Monday. Rescue crews said they assume the missing six are in those cabins because the storm struck when most would be sleeping, but the teams haven鈥檛 verified their presence there through portholes.
The Bayesian, a 56-meter (184-foot) British-flagged yacht, was moored about a kilometer (a half-mile) offshore when a storm rolled in before 4 a.m. Monday. Civil protection officials said they believed the ship was struck by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout, .
Grainy film from closed-circuit cameras from shore, broadcast on the website of the Giornale di Sicilia, showed the majestic, illuminated 75-meter (246-foot) mast of the Bayesian weathering the storm and then disappearing over the course of a minute.
Fifteen of the 22 people aboard survived, including a mother who reported holding her 1-year-old baby over the waves to save her. One body was recovered, identified by officials as the Antiguan-born on-board chef. The rest of the 10-person crew survived, including the captain whom prosecutors reportedly sought to interview.
The survivors were rescued by a nearby sailboat after getting into a lifeboat.
Lynch, who was once hailed as Britain鈥檚 king of technology, was of fraud and conspiracy charges in a U.S. federal trial related to Hewlett Packard鈥檚 $11 billion takeover of his company, Autonomy Corp. His wife, Angela Bacares, survived the sinking. Hannah Lynch, the couple鈥檚 18-year-old daughter, is reportedly unaccounted for.
Also unaccounted for are Christopher Morvillo, one of Lynch鈥檚 lawyers, and his wife, Neda; and Jonathan Bloomer, a chairman at Morgan Stanley International and the former head of the Autonomy audit committee who testified in Lynch鈥檚 defense, and his wife.
Karsten Borner, the captain of the Sir Robert Baden Powell, which rescued the survivors, said he was close enough to see the Bayesian as the storm came in.
鈥淎 moment later, she was gone,鈥� he said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a great, great tragedy,鈥� said Britain鈥檚 ambassador to Italy, Edward Llewellyn, who visited Porticello on Tuesday. Britain sent four investigators to the scene, given the disaster involved a British-flagged ship and British citizens were among the missing.
Luca Cari, a spokesman for the rescue teams, said the search was proceeding much more slowly than another big shipwreck in Italy, the 2012 Costa Concordia cruise ship that flipped on its side off Tuscany's coast, because of the depth of the wreck and the limited space divers have to maneuver.
鈥淭hat was much simpler. Here everything is more tight," he said.
The outing was intended at least in part as a celebration of Lynch鈥檚 acquittal and a 鈥渓ooking forward to what was coming next,鈥� said Reid Weingarten, a Washington attorney and a member of Lynch鈥檚 defense team who was not on the yacht.
鈥淎 lot of people went, a lot of people were planning to go and then, of course, this happened,鈥� Weingarten said.
Weingarten worked with Morvillo and said he 鈥渨as like a brother.鈥�
Aki Hussain, CEO of international insurer Hiscox Group, where Bloomer was chairman, said the company was 鈥渄eeply shocked and saddened by this tragic event.鈥�
鈥淥ur thoughts are with all those affected, in particular our Chair, Jonathan Bloomer, and his wife Judy, who are among the missing, and with their family as they await further news from this terrible situation,鈥� he added.
Among the survivors, the Emslie family was released from Palermo's pediatric hospital on Tuesday. Charlotte Golunski had reported that she momentarily lost hold of her 1-year-old daughter, Sofia, in the water but then managed to hold her up over the waves until they were both pulled to safety, doctors said.
The father, identified by ANSA news agency as James Emslie, also survived.
鈥淭hey don't talk much, primarily because they consider themselves survivors and they don't understand why they survived given what they went through,鈥� said Dr. Domenico Cipolla, head of the emergency room at Di Cristina pediatric hospital.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Cipolla said the parents had been in touch with other survivors, who are being housed at a nearby hotel and were waiting for other family members to arrive in Sicily.
The Bayesian, built in 2008 by the Italian firm Perini Navi, is registered to Revtom Ltd., according to online maritime database Equasis. Bacares, Lynch's wife, is listed as Revtom's sole owner, according to corporate registration documents from the Isle of Man.
According to online charter companies, it had been available for charter for 195,000 euros (about $215,000) a week and was notable for its massive 75-meter-tall (246-foot-tall) aluminum mast, one of the tallest in the world.
The coast guard said to date there was no trace of fuel leaks from the wreckage.
In an unrelated event, Lynch's co-defendant in the Autonomy trial who was also cleared, Stephen Chamberlain, was killed Sunday when he was hit by a car while running in Cambridgeshire, England, said Chamberlain's lawyer, Gary Lincenberg.
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Winfield reported from Rome. Associated Press writers Eric Tucker in Washington; and Danica Kirka and Kelvin Chan in London, contributed to this report.
Silvia Stellacci, Andrea Rosa And Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press
