Vigili del Fuoco

A photograph taken minutes before the Bayesian superyacht sank appears to show that a door in the hull was closed in the minutes leading up to the disaster: contradicting claims that the crew had left it open, allowing water to flood in during a storm off the coast of Sicily.

The photo, taken by a passenger on a nearby yacht just 14 minutes before the Bayesian sank in the freak storm, appears to shows the door closed, challenging accusations made against the crew.

The 56-metre Perini Navi superyacht Bayesian capsized during a violent storm in August, resulting in the deaths of seven people, including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah.

Three crew members are being investigated by Sicilian prosecutors, who have been accused of leaving a large door open on the rear port side of the yacht. Allegations claim that the storm drove water into the yacht through the door, contributing to it going down. However, two photographs, to be featured in a new documentary, The Sinking of a Superyacht — How Safe Is Your Voyage?, show the door was shut in the hours and minutes leading up to the incident. The documentary airs tonight (3 October 2024) at 9pm BST on British TV channel ITV1.

The photographs were taken by passengers aboard the Sir Robert Baden Powell, a yacht anchored about 100 metres from the Bayesian that survived the storm. The images were provided to ITV by Karsten Borner, the Dutch captain of the Sir Robert Baden Powell. Borner and his crew picked up nine crew and six passengers who had survived the sinking.

Speaking to German newspaper Der Spiegel last month, Borner expressed frustration with attempts by the yacht’s manufacturer, Perini Navi, to place the blame on the crew. Giovanni Costantino, head of the Italian Sea Group, which owns Perini Navi, previously described the Bayesian as “unsinkable“ and has claimed that the crew must have left doors or hatches open, allowing water to enter.

Costantino also criticised the crew for not saving the lives of all those on board, telling Italian media last month: “If all 20 had been on deck, with lifeboats in the water, the yacht would have gone down, but all 20 would have been saved.”

Four of the victims died from a lack of oxygen after an air bubble on the sunken boat ran out, post-mortems have discovered.

The Italian Sea Group (TISG) recently dismissed its legal team following the filing of a rogue lawsuit against Mike Lynch’s widow Angela Bacares and the yacht’s crew.

Interviewed for the ITV documentary, Borner recounts the moments when the Bayesian disappeared. “My first mate said, ‘she has gone, she has sunk,’ and I was laughing at him, saying such a big thing doesn’t disappear in a minute. He was right,” Borner recalls.

Italian firefighter Fabio Paoletti, who helped recover the victims’ bodies, says that locating the body of Hannah Lynch was the most difficult of all the victims, and speaks of his distress at finding her. “The girl was at the end in the last room. She was of small stature and hidden by a mattress, so it took longer to see her,” Paoletti tells the documentary.

Efforts to raise the Bayesian are ongoing, with plans potentially involving either buoyancy balloons or a crane on a barge. Salvage experts have estimated using a crane could cost over €2mn.

An investigation into the sinking is ongoing.

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