Two bodies still missing from Mike Lynch’s sunken yacht in Sicily By Reuters

PORTICELLO, Italy (Reuters) – Search efforts off the coast of Sicily to find two bodies still missing from the sunken yacht belonging to the wife of British tech tycoon Mike Lynch are expected to resume early on Thursday.

On Wednesday, four bodies were retrieved from the wreckage and transported to nearby hospitals in the city of Palermo.

A source said a fifth body may have been found late Wednesday, but firefighters and the coast guard, which were overseeing the operation, would not confirm this.

Italian authorities have not officially identified the bodies, but Britain’s Daily Telegraph reported that two of the dead were Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter. Italy’s Corriere della Sera said the only bodies identified so far were Morgan Stanley banker Jonathan Bloomer and American lawyer Chris Morvillo.

The British-flagged Bayesian, a 56-metre-long (184 ft) superyacht carrying 22 passengers and crew, was anchored off the port of Porticello, near Palermo, when it disappeared under the waves within minutes of a fierce storm. hit.

Fifteen people, including Lynch’s wife, managed to escape the boat before it capsized, while the body of the cook on board, Canadian-Antiguan citizen Recaldo Thomas, was found near the wreckage hours after the disaster.

The operations were difficult due to the depth and narrowness of the places that the divers dive, the firemen said in a statement.

He compared the efforts to those on a larger scale for the Costa Concordia, the luxury cruise ship that capsized off the Italian island of Giglio in January 2012, killing 32 people.

UNSINKABLE

The disaster baffled naval marine experts who said such a vessel, built by high-end Italian yacht maker Perini and supposed to have top-notch fittings and safety features, should have withstood such a times.

Prosecutors in the nearby city of Termini Imerese opened an investigation and authorities began questioning passengers and witnesses.

The captain and crew have made no official comment on the disaster.

Giovanni Constantino, CEO of the Italian Sea Group, which includes Perini, said the Bayesian is “one of the safest boats in the world” and virtually unsinkable.

He added that he believed the disaster was caused by a chain of human errors and that the storm was expected, in interviews with Italian media.

“The ship sank because it took on water, from where the investigators will have to say,” Costantino told the TG1 television news program on Wednesday night.

Citing data from the yacht’s automatic tracking and based on available footage, Costantino said it took 16 minutes from the time the wind began to buffet the yacht and it began taking on water for it to sink.

Costantino said the Milan-listed group had suffered “enormous damage” to its reputation, with shares down 2.5% since the disaster.