A search and rescue operation is under way after a luxury yacht – the Bayesian – carrying several British citizens sank off the coast of Sicily Monday morning.
One person has been confirmed dead and six people are still missing. Emergency services rescued 15 people, including a one-year-old British girl.
The Italian Coastguard is leading the search, with divers and helicopters scouring the sea.
A wreck has been located at a depth of 50m (164ft) below the water’s surface. The captain of a boat nearby says he found 15 survivors in a life raft and alerted the coastguard.
He says the vessel was “heeling” (leaning over to the side) before it sank.
Camper & Nicholsons, managers of the Bayesian, confirmed to the BBC that the yacht sank after “severe weather”
British entrepreneur Mike Lynch is among the missing people, Reuters and PA news agency report.
As well as the British people on the yacht, it’s been reported that those onboard were nationals of the US, Canada, Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Ireland.
British businessman Mike Lynch, who is reportedly missing after the luxury yacht sank off the coast of Sicily, made his fortune in the IT industry.
Lynch co-founded software company Autonomy in Cambridge in 1996, which expanded rapidly to become one of the UK’s leading tech firms.
His company’s success led it to be being sold to computing giant Hewlett-Packard for $11bn (£8.6bn) in 2011 – a deal Lynch made £500m ($647m).
But the acquisition soon unravelled, as questions were asked about the enormous price tag.
Just a year later, HP wrote down the value of Autonomy to $8.8bn, saying Lynch had exaggerated its value.
Years of legal battles followed, which culminated in US prosecutors bringing charges against Lynch in 2018.
Prosecutors accused him of inflating the value of the firm by using backdated agreements to mislead about the company’s sales, said he had concealed the firm’s loss-making business reselling hardware, and also accused him of intimidating or paying off people who raised concerns.
But he was eventually extradited to the US in 2022 to face trial – a process which culminated in June with his acquittal.
In an interview with the BBC earlier this month, Lynch said “the reason I’m sitting here, let’s be honest, is not only because I was innocent… but because I had enough money not to be swept away by a process that’s set up to sweep you away”.
