Mike Lynch's superyacht fully raised above water for first time since it sank
Tech tycoon Mike Lynch's superyacht has been fully raised above water for the first time since it sank off the coast of Sicily.
Seven people died when the Bayesian sank off the Italian island on August 19, including billionaire Mr Lynch, 59, and his daughter Hannah, 18.
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The 56-metre (184ft) yacht was seen being held above the water by one of Europe's most powerful sea cranes near the fishing town of Porticello on Saturday afternoon.
The yacht's propeller, rudder and keel all appeared to be intact.
It was then lowered again slightly and salvage crews say that on Sunday it will be moved to Termini Imerese – where Italian prosecutors investigating the sinking are based.
On Saturday morning, workers could be seen on the vessel, which is covered in mud and algae, while the canopy and guard rails are mangled.
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The full word 'Bayesian' could be seen on the stern of the yacht and a ladder which Italian coastguard officials say was originally on the ship to allow passengers to disembark was seen cracked and pointed upwards on the starboard side.
Also visible on the top deck was the stump of the mast.
Salvage workers say there were 18,000 litres of fuel on board.
Investigators in the UK and Italy say raising the vessel is crucial to fully understanding what happened.
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Balloon-like kit will be used to lift the Bayesian's mast, a project insider said.
The yacht's 72-metre (236ft) mast was cut off on Tuesday using a remote-controlled tool and rested on the seabed.
Mike Lynch's superyacht the Bayesian is lifted to the surface near the fishing town of Porticello, Sicily. Photo: Peter Byrne/PA.
He told PA: 'Lifting bags will be used on the mast, but this will not start until Tuesday or Wednesday.
'In the interim, the salvors on-site not accompanying Bayesian to port will be conducting a full sweep of the seabed site for any potential debris.'
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Meanwhile, Michele Maltese, of the Italian coastguard, told reporters that thermal cameras were used to check for any potential fuel leaks.
A local law investigator was also at the scene, he said.
Marcus Cave of British firm TMC Marine, which is overseeing the salvage efforts, said: 'This was a complex and precise lifting operation to recover Bayesian, and followed a step-by-step programme of salvage work.
'The salvage team has progressed in a systematic way that prioritised the safety of all working on site and minimised any potential impact on the environment.
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'This care for personnel and for the environment will continue as Bayesian is transported into port tomorrow.'
The vessel was originally expected to be raised last month, but salvage efforts were delayed after a diver died during underwater work on May 9, prompting greater use of remote-controlled equipment.
Water is pumped off Mike Lynch's superyacht the Bayesian as it is lifted to the surface near Porticello, Sicily. Photo: Peter Byrne/PA.
About 70 specialist personnel had been mobilised to Porticello from across Europe to work on the recovery operation, which began last month.
Inquest proceedings in the UK are looking at the deaths of Mr Lynch and his daughter, as well as Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer, 70, and his wife, Judy Bloomer, 71, who were all British nationals.
Marine Accident Investigation Branch investigators said in an interim report that the Bayesian was knocked over by 'extreme wind'.
The yacht had a vulnerability to winds, but the owner and crew would not have known, the report said.
US lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo, and Canadian-Antiguan national Recaldo Thomas, who was working as a chef on the vessel, also died in the sinking.
Fifteen people, including Mr Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, were rescued.
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Report into sinking of Mike Lynch's superyacht Bay...
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Mr Lynch and his daughter were said to have lived in the vicinity of London and the Bloomers lived in Sevenoaks in Kent.
The tycoon founded software giant Autonomy in 1996 and was cleared in June last year of carrying out a massive fraud over the sale of the firm to Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2011.
The boat trip was a celebration of his acquittal in the case in the US.
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The Sun
3 hours ago
- The Sun
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BBC News
5 hours ago
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The murder of John 'Goldfinger' Palmer in Essex still unsolved
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At about 17:30 BST, a suspect believed to be a contract killer scaled his garden fence having seemingly watched him through a carved-out was killed in the only part of the garden not covered by was found unconscious by his son's girlfriend. Two police officers attended at about 19:20 and had assessed his death as "non-suspicious" on account of an operation wound from recent gall bladder surgery. A week later, a post-mortem examination revealed he was, in fact, shot in the chest, abdomen, arm, elbow, back and kidneys. "It's definitely not something I'm going to hide behind; we did make mistakes," said Det Supt Stephen Jennings of Essex Police, speaking to the BBC's Gangster podcast series in 2022."We didn't do enough background checks on John."Had we done that, the officers would have realised he had quite a substantial criminal background."They didn't really check the body well enough to discount any third-party involvement." 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Humble beginnings Born in Solihull near Birmingham, Palmer was one of seven children raised in a poor single-parent was a serial truant and left school at 15 without learning to read or teenager worked in roofing but moved on to street trading, which included selling paraffin off the back of a moved to Bedminster in Bristol and made his first £100,000 (£2m in today's money) from a jewellery set up Scadlynn, a company trading precious scrap business partner Gareth Chappell was later jailed for 10 years for conspiring to handle stolen goods in connection with the Brink's-Mat raid. The gold When Palmer was identified as a Brink's-Mat suspect, he accused the Met Police of "overreacting"."I'm completely innocent of anything to do with this so-called 'Mats-Brink' bullion raid," he said, sitting beside a hotel pool in Tenerife in 1985, after being tracked down by BBC war reporter Kate continued to deliberately - or mistakenly - confuse the Brink's-Mat name when he stood trial at the Old Bailey in 1987, and it blew kisses to jurors after they found him not guilty of conspiring to handle stolen gold Brink's-Mat heist, and the cat-and-mouse chases that followed, have been dramatised in BBC One TV series The the final episode, which aired earlier this month, the fictional detective, played by Hugh Bonneville, signs off with: "It's Brink's-Mat - it's never over."Palmer seemed unable to shake off the spectre of the 1983 raid. Timeshare empire Instead of going to ground, Palmer became one of the biggest landowners in Ramm, who oversaw investigations into Palmer and the laundering of the Brink's-Mat gold in the 1990s, said his team was "convinced" he invested earnings from the robbery into the amassed an estimated fortune of £300m which he used to buy a West Country mansion, a French chateau with its own golf course, a jet, turboprop-powered helicopters, a £750,000 yacht, and a classic car collection including Porsches and and Elizabeth II were jointly ranked 105th in the Sunday Times Rich prosecutors accused him of masterminding a timeshare fraud which involved 16,000 victims who were scammed out of more than £ found him guilty of conspiracy to defraud at the Old Bailey and he was jailed for eight years in 2001. David Farrer KC, the lead prosecution counsel, described Palmer as the "biggest shark" in the timeshare waters - a quote that was rekindled for the final episode of The Palmer defended himself, Mr Farrer spent hours liaising with his opposite number in private."He could be quite pleasant and charming," said the retired barrister."That was invariably when he thought the case was going well for him. I've no doubt whatever of his potential violence. "If I had been anything other than prosecuting counsel he would have clouted me a few times."Mr Farrer recalled how during the trial, Palmer wore body armour and was shadowed by Special Branch officers because they were concerned a north London gang had put a contract out on him because he owed them served half his sentence, and in 2009, he moved in with partner Christina Ketley and their son at South Weald. Contract killer Speaking to the BBC's Crimewatch in 2016, Det Supt Jennings said the Spanish fraud prosecution - announced at the end of May 2015 - was the most likely motive for his was complicated when considering his links to the men behind the Hatton Garden heist of April 2015, the detective said, and because of recent "law enforcement intervention with organised crime families"."It was an opportunity for any one of those individuals at any subsequent trial to blame John for what took place and obviously he would not be in a position to answer that or refute it," said Det Supt Jennings. On the evening Essex Police revealed Palmer was murdered, Mr Farrer received an unexpected call from a Scotland Yard detective he had worked with more than 13 years earlier."I asked him, was it the Russians who did it?" Mr Farrer recalled."He said they thought it was much more likely this gang in north London, the Adams, and they certainly didn't think that it was directly anything to do with timeshare - in other words, the same people that caused Palmer to wear body armour during his trial."The Mail on Sunday singled out the Adams crime family as the brains behind the killing in a 2016 "Patsy" Adams, of Finsbury, north London, was jailed later that year for shooting an associate, and other members of the syndicate have received prison time in recent McCunn is more veteran lawyer led civil action against Palmer in the mid-1990s on behalf of insurers acting for the Brink's-Mat business."It could be linked to any number of activities he was known to be involved with," he told the BBC. 'Very dangerous people' A £100,000 reward was put up by Palmer's family and charity Crimestoppers in 2018 for information leading to a conviction - but that reward has Ramm said: "It is particularly important that this murder continues to be investigated because of who Palmer was, the role he played in the network of serious and organised criminals in the UK, in Spain - internationally."He offended and upset some very, very, dangerous people, and we need to know who they were." Palmer always maintained he did not know he had melted Brink's-Mat Ketley was due to stand trial in Madrid in 2019 in connection with the timeshare fraud, but the case against her was dropped. Other individuals were found guilty."Without doubt [Palmer] has made mistakes in his life; I believe he has paid for those mistakes," Ms Ketley told BBC Crimewatch."I was incredibly proud of the way he adjusted to a very normal life."She still owns the gated woodland property where Palmer was murdered. She did not respond to the BBC's approach for comment. A 43-year-old man from Rugby, Warwickshire, was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder in 2015, but was released without February 2017, detectives said a 50-year-old man from Tyneside, who lived in southern Spain, was questioned on suspicion of murder in what was a voluntary interview. He faced no further Police says it has taken hundreds of witness statements, pursued hundreds of lines of inquiries and examined thousands of pieces of the failures on the day Palmer was murdered, a force spokesperson said on Friday: "It is always best to secure and preserve crime scenes as soon as possible to achieve the best forensic evidence and regrettably that was not the case in this incident."However, outdoor crime scenes by their very nature have less forensic opportunities."We believe this murder was a professional contract killing and our experiences of similar cases such as this are that these types of murderers are forensically aware, limiting our opportunity to secure evidence." Mr Ramm thinks detectives will need an organised criminal to hand over key information as "leverage"."I think that's probably the only way it's going to be solved - someone on the inside becomes an informer." Follow Essex news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
