Update, 22 August, 10:30am:
A fifth body has been retrieved from the wreckage of the yacht, as confirmed by the civil protection authority, Cape {town} Etc reports.
This latest recovery brings the total number of confirmed fatalities to six, following the discovery of Chef Recaldo Thomas’s body on the day the yacht sank.
Early in the morning, just after 9:45am, a fire service boat with flashing blue lights returned to Porticello, carrying a blue body bag.
Among the survivors were two young South African hostesses who have recounted the terror they felt as they were caught in the fierce storm.
South Africans Leah Randall (20) and Katja Chicken (22) are currently staying at a hotel in Sicily alongside other survivors.
They were seen in the lobby of the Domina Zagarella hotel in Santa Flavia, which has also become a temporary base for police and rescue teams.
The hostesses expressed their disbelief at surviving, saying, ‘We are alive by a miracle.’
Their voices trembled with emotion, and they were unable to provide more details, still overwhelmed by the trauma of the event. One of them added, ‘It was terrible.’
The survivors did not share further information about their rescue.
Update, 21 August:
Specialist divers are still searching for six individuals who were aboard the luxury superyacht Bayesian, which capsized off the coast of Sicily on Monday morning.
The cause of the vessel’s sinking remains under investigation. Vessel tracking data indicates that the yacht departed from Milazzo on 14 August and was last recorded east of Palermo with its navigation status listed as at anchor.
Initial reports suggest that a tornado, or waterspout, may have struck the yacht, leading to its capsizing. Another theory is that water may have entered the boat through open hatches and doors, left ajar due to the warm weather along the Italian coast.
According to sailing expert Sam Jefferson, the open hatches could have allowed water to flood the yacht quickly, especially after the vessel was tipped over by strong winds. He notes that the mast, being very large, might have acted like a sail, exacerbating the boat’s tipping.
Witnesses observed a waterspout forming before the yacht’s sinking. Waterspouts, similar to tornadoes but over water, are short-lived and not easily detected by weather radars. The International Centre for Waterspout Research confirmed 18 waterspouts off Italy’s coast on 19 August. With rising sea temperatures due to climate change, such phenomena might become more frequent. The Mediterranean recently recorded its highest sea surface temperatures, fueling storms.
Bayesian, built by Perini in 2008 and last refitted in 2020, features a 75-metre (246-foot) mast, which may have contributed to the vessel’s instability. Captain Karsten Borner, who was nearby, reported a powerful hurricane gust and saw the yacht’s mast bend and snap.
Despite these reports, Palermo fire service diver Marco Tilotta confirmed that the yacht remains largely intact but on its side.
Matthew Schanck from the Maritime Search and Rescue Council noted that it’s difficult to confirm if the mast broke. He considers the incident a ‘freak event,’ emphasising that yachts are not designed to withstand tornadoes or waterspouts.
Since mid-June, sea temperatures around Sicily have been exceptionally high, with recent records indicating water temperatures exceeding 30°C (86°F). This extreme heat, attributed to climate change, has contributed to the unprecedented conditions in the Mediterranean. Scientists warn that the oceans, absorbing much of the excess heat, are warming more rapidly than expected, raising concerns about future climate impacts.
CCTV footage shows the final moments before the sinking of the yacht.
CCTV footage shows the moment a waterspout hits the Bayesian superyacht
📌 #Palermo | #Sicily #Bayesian #MikeLynch #JonathanBloomer #ChrisMorvillo pic.twitter.com/qYzzdd2nEh
— DISASTER TRACKER (@DisasterTrackHQ) August 21, 2024
A luxury yacht sunk during a tornado caused by a freak storm off the coast of Sicily. A search and rescue operation is currently underway and reports have confirmed one fatality and six missing passengers, Cape {town} Etc reports.
Of the wreck, 15 people have been rescued, with eight of those passengers being hospitalised.
Also read: NSRI assists sailing yacht following destructive storm
All eight were in stable condition, which included a one-year-old baby, according to 2oceansvibe.
The yacht, named the Bayesian, was caught in the storm when a tornado hit the area, located off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo, at around 5am yesterday.
Reports indicate that the yacht’s passengers were tourists on holiday in Sicily, and it is feared that those missing may have been ‘trapped inside their cabins’.
A helicopter and coastguard ships have been sent to search the wreck above the surface as well as below. Divers already reached the hull, located 500 metres from the coast and 49 metres below the surface.
Divers saw ‘corpses through the portholes’ of the sunken ship as the body of a man was being recovered at a depth of around 50 metres.
The body recovered is believed to be that of Recaldo Thomas, the vessel’s Canadian chef, according to Sky News.
Based on nautical map information, the Bayesian was at anchor soon after 2am local time.
It has been theorised that the ship made a stop at Milazzo, around 160 kilometres up the coast in the direction of the Italian mainland, before it sailed on to Porticello.
Witnesses told the Italian news agency ANSA that the ship was still anchored close to the port when the tornado hit.
‘That boat was all lit up,’ a witness in Porticello told ANSA.
‘At around 4.30 in the morning it was gone. A beautiful boat where there had been a party. A normal holiday spent happily at sea turned into a tragedy […] The boat was not far from the port. It took very little to raise the anchor and head for the port. Evidently, they were surprised by the storm that suddenly hit and they were unable to avoid sinking,’ the witness added.
Among the missing passengers was tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, who has regularly been described as ‘Britain’s Bill Gates’, according to NBC News.
Lynch (59) is the founder of the enterprise software firm Autonomy and became the target of a ‘protracted legal battle’ with Hewlett Packard after the US tech giant accused him of ‘inflating the company’s value’ in an $11 billion sale.
Extradited from Britain to the US last year to stand trial, Lynch was acquitted of fraud following a three-month trial.
Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter is also among the missing, BBC News reports, while other high profile passengers that remain missing are Jonathan Bloomer, chairman of Morgan Stanley International, and Chris Morvillo, a lawyer at major firm Clifford Chance.
Lynch’s wife, Angela Baracas, was among the 14 other survivors.
‘They were in the wrong place at the wrong time,’ said Salvo Cocina of Sicily’s civil protection agency.
Cocina noted that another superyacht nearby wasn’t as badly damaged and helped rescue some of the 15 survivors. AP reported.
In a statement, Italy’s coast guard said that the 184-foot yacht sank ‘due to a violent storm’, off the coast of Palermo, at around 5am local time, with 22 people on board.
American, British and Canadian citizens were among those missing, the statement added.
Karsten Borner, the captain of the ship that rescued the survivors, told reporters that there was a ‘strong hurricane gust and we had to start the engine to keep the ship in an angled position’.
Borner added that they had seen the Bayesian behind them during the storm, and said that after the storm subsided, they ‘noticed that the ship behind us was gone,’ Borner added.
‘Fifteen people inside. Four people were injured, three heavily injured and we brought them to our ship,’ said Borner.
‘Then we communicated with the coast guard and after some time, the coast guard came and later picked up injured people,’ Borner added.
The UK-registered Bayesian, built by Italian shipbuilder Perini in 2008, has an aluminium hull and can carry 12 guests and a crew of up to 10.
The boat left the Sicilian port of Milazzo on Wednesday, 14 August and was last tracked east of Palermo on Sunday evening, with a navigation status of ‘at anchor’.
Also read:
Two sailors rescued, one presumed lost as yacht sinks en route to Cape Town
Picture: Gallo images