Superyacht pulled from seabed 10 months after sinking
A British-flagged luxury superyacht that sank off Sicily in 2024, killing UK tech magnate Mike Lynch and six others, has partially resurfaced as salvage recovery crews finalise the complex operation to bring it ashore for further investigation.
The white top and blue hull of the 56-metre Bayesian was visible on the surface on Saturday, but was not clear of the sea yet in a holding area of a yellow floating crane barge.
"Pumping out of sea water will continue and it will be lunchtime, following a series of lifting and resting procedures to satisfy the salvage team, before Bayesian is fully and finally out of the water," said David Wilson, spokesman for TMC Maritime, which is conducting the recovery operation.
The Bayesian sank August 19 off Porticello, near Palermo, during a violent storm as Lynch was treating friends to a cruise to celebrate his acquittal two months earlier in the US on fraud charges.
Lynch, his daughter and five others died. Fifteen people survived, including the captain and all crew members except the chef.
Italian authorities are conducting a full criminal investigation.
TMC Maritime said the vessel has been slowly raised from the seabed, 50m down, in the past three days to allow the steel lifting straps, slings and harnesses to be secured under the keel.
Eight steel lifting straps are being used to support the hull upright and to form part of a steel wire lifting system that began raising the vessel out of the water on Saturday.
As it is lifted up, sea water is pumped out of the hull.
On Sunday, it is anticipated the floating crane platform will move the Bayesian to the Sicilian port of Termini Imerese, where a special steel cradle is waiting for it.
The Bayesian is missing its 72m mast, which was cut off and left on the seabed for future removal.
British investigators said in an interim report issued in May that the yacht was knocked over by "extreme wind" and could not recover.
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The Advertiser
4 hours ago
- The Advertiser
Tech tycoon's superyacht lifted from water off Italy
Salvage experts have hauled UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch's superyacht from the water and plan to take it to a Sicilian port for inspection, 10 months after it sank off the coast of Sicily, killing Lynch, his teenage daughter and five others. Work had resumed at first light on Saturday, with one of the most powerful maritime cranes in Europe used to haul the 56-metre-long Bayesian from beneath the waves. The Bayesian's upper decks appeared badly damaged while the blue hull was encrusted with mud after it had lain on the seabed at a depth of 50 metres. Italian authorities in the nearby port of Termini Imerese will have a chance to inspect the luxury yacht next week as they seek clues into a tragedy that has puzzled maritime experts. The Bayesian was moored off the small port of Porticello, near Palermo, in August last year when it sank during a sudden storm. The yacht was vulnerable to violent winds and was probably knocked over by gusts of more than 117 km/h, an interim United Kingdom report said last month. The salvage team, led by UK company TMC Marine, pumped sea water out of the hull and the vessel was held in an elevated position, surrounded by pollution containment booms, while further checks were carried out. "This was a complex and precise lifting operation to recover Bayesian, and followed a step-by-step program of salvage work," said Marcus Cave, a director of TMC Marine. The plan is for the yacht to be carried to port on Sunday before it is lifted on Monday on to a specially manufactured steel cradle on the quayside. The recovery process has been made easier after the vessel's 72-metre mast was detached using a remote-controlled cutting tool and placed on the seabed on Tuesday. In addition to Lynch, founder of the software company Autonomy, his daughter Hannah, lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda, banker Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy, and chef Recaldo Thomas were killed when the yacht sank. Nine other crew members and six guests were rescued. Salvage experts have hauled UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch's superyacht from the water and plan to take it to a Sicilian port for inspection, 10 months after it sank off the coast of Sicily, killing Lynch, his teenage daughter and five others. Work had resumed at first light on Saturday, with one of the most powerful maritime cranes in Europe used to haul the 56-metre-long Bayesian from beneath the waves. The Bayesian's upper decks appeared badly damaged while the blue hull was encrusted with mud after it had lain on the seabed at a depth of 50 metres. Italian authorities in the nearby port of Termini Imerese will have a chance to inspect the luxury yacht next week as they seek clues into a tragedy that has puzzled maritime experts. The Bayesian was moored off the small port of Porticello, near Palermo, in August last year when it sank during a sudden storm. The yacht was vulnerable to violent winds and was probably knocked over by gusts of more than 117 km/h, an interim United Kingdom report said last month. The salvage team, led by UK company TMC Marine, pumped sea water out of the hull and the vessel was held in an elevated position, surrounded by pollution containment booms, while further checks were carried out. "This was a complex and precise lifting operation to recover Bayesian, and followed a step-by-step program of salvage work," said Marcus Cave, a director of TMC Marine. The plan is for the yacht to be carried to port on Sunday before it is lifted on Monday on to a specially manufactured steel cradle on the quayside. The recovery process has been made easier after the vessel's 72-metre mast was detached using a remote-controlled cutting tool and placed on the seabed on Tuesday. In addition to Lynch, founder of the software company Autonomy, his daughter Hannah, lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda, banker Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy, and chef Recaldo Thomas were killed when the yacht sank. Nine other crew members and six guests were rescued. Salvage experts have hauled UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch's superyacht from the water and plan to take it to a Sicilian port for inspection, 10 months after it sank off the coast of Sicily, killing Lynch, his teenage daughter and five others. Work had resumed at first light on Saturday, with one of the most powerful maritime cranes in Europe used to haul the 56-metre-long Bayesian from beneath the waves. The Bayesian's upper decks appeared badly damaged while the blue hull was encrusted with mud after it had lain on the seabed at a depth of 50 metres. Italian authorities in the nearby port of Termini Imerese will have a chance to inspect the luxury yacht next week as they seek clues into a tragedy that has puzzled maritime experts. The Bayesian was moored off the small port of Porticello, near Palermo, in August last year when it sank during a sudden storm. The yacht was vulnerable to violent winds and was probably knocked over by gusts of more than 117 km/h, an interim United Kingdom report said last month. The salvage team, led by UK company TMC Marine, pumped sea water out of the hull and the vessel was held in an elevated position, surrounded by pollution containment booms, while further checks were carried out. "This was a complex and precise lifting operation to recover Bayesian, and followed a step-by-step program of salvage work," said Marcus Cave, a director of TMC Marine. The plan is for the yacht to be carried to port on Sunday before it is lifted on Monday on to a specially manufactured steel cradle on the quayside. The recovery process has been made easier after the vessel's 72-metre mast was detached using a remote-controlled cutting tool and placed on the seabed on Tuesday. In addition to Lynch, founder of the software company Autonomy, his daughter Hannah, lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda, banker Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy, and chef Recaldo Thomas were killed when the yacht sank. Nine other crew members and six guests were rescued. Salvage experts have hauled UK tech tycoon Mike Lynch's superyacht from the water and plan to take it to a Sicilian port for inspection, 10 months after it sank off the coast of Sicily, killing Lynch, his teenage daughter and five others. Work had resumed at first light on Saturday, with one of the most powerful maritime cranes in Europe used to haul the 56-metre-long Bayesian from beneath the waves. The Bayesian's upper decks appeared badly damaged while the blue hull was encrusted with mud after it had lain on the seabed at a depth of 50 metres. Italian authorities in the nearby port of Termini Imerese will have a chance to inspect the luxury yacht next week as they seek clues into a tragedy that has puzzled maritime experts. The Bayesian was moored off the small port of Porticello, near Palermo, in August last year when it sank during a sudden storm. The yacht was vulnerable to violent winds and was probably knocked over by gusts of more than 117 km/h, an interim United Kingdom report said last month. The salvage team, led by UK company TMC Marine, pumped sea water out of the hull and the vessel was held in an elevated position, surrounded by pollution containment booms, while further checks were carried out. "This was a complex and precise lifting operation to recover Bayesian, and followed a step-by-step program of salvage work," said Marcus Cave, a director of TMC Marine. The plan is for the yacht to be carried to port on Sunday before it is lifted on Monday on to a specially manufactured steel cradle on the quayside. The recovery process has been made easier after the vessel's 72-metre mast was detached using a remote-controlled cutting tool and placed on the seabed on Tuesday. In addition to Lynch, founder of the software company Autonomy, his daughter Hannah, lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda, banker Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy, and chef Recaldo Thomas were killed when the yacht sank. Nine other crew members and six guests were rescued.
The Age
12 hours ago
- The Age
Shadow fleets and ‘grey-zone' sabotage: The communication battleground beneath the waves
In October 2023, damage to the Balticconnector gas pipeline and telecom cables linking Estonia, Sweden and Finland made headlines. Official statements were cautious, but satellite data later tracked a Chinese-flagged vessel suspiciously close to the damage zone. A similar pattern repeated off the coast of Denmark's Bornholm island just months later. Each time, attribution proved elusive – but not implausible. Loading CSRI executive director Andrew Yeh said the involvement of commercial shadow fleets was consistent with grey-zone doctrine. 'Undersea cables underpin prosperity and security in the digital age,' he said. 'We cannot afford to be naive about the unprecedented threat that China and Russia's grey-zone operations pose to the UK's undersea infrastructure. The Baltic Sea is a peculiar theatre for modern maritime competition. At first glance, it's a crowded body of water – shallow, narrow, hemmed in by nine countries, six of them NATO members. But that congestion is precisely what makes it a high-stakes flashpoint. It has become a transport lifeline for Vladimir Putin's Russia, both in terms of exports and imports, and strategically. About 60 undersea cable systems crisscross the Baltic, with more added each year. These cables don't just power Netflix in Norway or Zoom in Zeebrugge – they form the encrypted foundation of NATO's command networks, trans-Atlantic data flows, and even the control systems for power grids and offshore wind farms. Yet NATO admits that it can't see everything. Much of the Baltic's maritime domain isn't covered by the automatic identification system that tracks commercial ships. Vessels operating 'dark' – without beacons, under false flags or masking their activity – have found freedom in the grey. That's where Task Force X comes in. Onboard Alliance, we're watching unmanned surface vehicles such as the Saildrone Explorer and Martac's Devil Ray glide in formation with crewed vessels. These aren't science-fair toys. They're the spear point of a NATO-wide effort to fill the surveillance gaps in increasingly contested waters. This week in The Hague, the issue will be high on the agenda of world leaders as they come together to discuss and debate European security and, in particular, the rate of spending needed to keep the continent safe. Data from the new systems and unmanned vehicles taking part in these exercises will be fed directly to a screen in real-time during the summit, showcasing the technology's effectiveness in enhancing NATO's understanding of the Baltic region. Leaders will also be asked to endorse a new rapid adoption action plan to ensure NATO's defences remain fit for purpose in an era of rapidly evolving threats and disruptive technological advancements. Task Force X is designed to integrate uncrewed systems – surface, subsurface and aerial – into NATO's maritime task groups. It's a lesson in agility, drawn from the US Navy's successful experiments in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea. But where those missions focused on anti-terrorism and anti-piracy, this one is squarely about deterring sabotage, especially to undersea infrastructure. The recent spate of attacks has accelerated the mission's rollout, with several NATO nations contributing commercial off-the-shelf systems upgraded with AI detection, sonar arrays and encrypted communications. 'The idea is to decentralise detection,' says Captain David Portal of Allied Maritime Command. 'We use autonomous vessels to track anomalies – dark ships, unexpected activity around known cable routes – and then feed that data into a real-time, pan-alliance picture.' The goal? To spot suspicious activity before the cable is cut – not after. What makes this different from past NATO initiatives is its scope. Task Force X isn't just plugging in new drones – it's part of a broader 'digital ocean vision', which seeks to use AI, big data and machine learning to create a living, learning map of NATO waters. Simon Purton, the head of innovation at NATO's Allied Command Transformation, says the organisation has moved with unprecedented speed following the disruptions to undersea infrastructure in the past year, integrating the allies' capabilities with scalable platforms to provide situational awareness, and deterrence, 24/7. 'The future that we see for the military exists in our industry ... in academia ... in our science and technology labs,' he says. 'So what we're trying to do then is create some tangible delivery on that, and also make sure that things are operationally relevant.' Loading Onboard the ship Alliance, that transformation is tangible. In the ship's command centre, researchers and officers watch sonar feeds and machine-learning-driven anomaly alerts. On-screen blips mark every commercial vessel. More worrying are the gaps – ship tracks that go dark near critical cable corridors, only to reappear hours later, far from where they should be. The stakes aren't abstract. In January, foreign ministers from Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania issued a joint communique pledging to 'intensify maritime patrols' after more confirmed sabotage incidents. While none pointed fingers directly, the language was unequivocal: this was the work of hostile actors. Russia, for its part, denies involvement. But few NATO commanders are buying that narrative. Australia's vast digital economy, worth billions of dollars, relies almost entirely on a surprisingly small and vulnerable network: just 15 known international subsea cables. These vital conduits, stretching to international hubs such as Singapore and Hawaii, carry 99 per cent of the nation's data traffic. It is one of the many reasons NATO is working with its 'Indo-Pacific 4' partners – Australia, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand. A NATO official tells me that the need to protect critical undersea infrastructure is a 'topic of increasing concern' in both the Euro-Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific. 'For this reason, we are sharing information and best practices about how we are going about it,' the official says. 'We also see potential for co-operation ... specifically in the area of technology development to allow us to better survey our critical undersea infrastructure.' With its blend of national contributions and off-the-shelf tech, the exercises are designed to deter further mischief, not through confrontation, but through visibility. The thinking is simple: if you can be seen, you can be deterred. Still, Task Force X is not without challenges. As with any move towards automation, there are questions around command authority, cyber vulnerabilities and even the ethics of allowing AI to classify potential threats. But few aboard Alliance seem bogged down in philosophical hand-wringing. The pace of experimentation is brisk. The political appetite, sharpened by recent attacks, is real. As I disembark under a steely Nordic sky, one thing is clear: the front lines of conflict are no longer just on land, sea or air. They are digital, invisible and, increasingly, underwater.
Sydney Morning Herald
12 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Shadow fleets and ‘grey-zone' sabotage: The communication battleground beneath the waves
In October 2023, damage to the Balticconnector gas pipeline and telecom cables linking Estonia, Sweden and Finland made headlines. Official statements were cautious, but satellite data later tracked a Chinese-flagged vessel suspiciously close to the damage zone. A similar pattern repeated off the coast of Denmark's Bornholm island just months later. Each time, attribution proved elusive – but not implausible. Loading CSRI executive director Andrew Yeh said the involvement of commercial shadow fleets was consistent with grey-zone doctrine. 'Undersea cables underpin prosperity and security in the digital age,' he said. 'We cannot afford to be naive about the unprecedented threat that China and Russia's grey-zone operations pose to the UK's undersea infrastructure. The Baltic Sea is a peculiar theatre for modern maritime competition. At first glance, it's a crowded body of water – shallow, narrow, hemmed in by nine countries, six of them NATO members. But that congestion is precisely what makes it a high-stakes flashpoint. It has become a transport lifeline for Vladimir Putin's Russia, both in terms of exports and imports, and strategically. About 60 undersea cable systems crisscross the Baltic, with more added each year. These cables don't just power Netflix in Norway or Zoom in Zeebrugge – they form the encrypted foundation of NATO's command networks, trans-Atlantic data flows, and even the control systems for power grids and offshore wind farms. Yet NATO admits that it can't see everything. Much of the Baltic's maritime domain isn't covered by the automatic identification system that tracks commercial ships. Vessels operating 'dark' – without beacons, under false flags or masking their activity – have found freedom in the grey. That's where Task Force X comes in. Onboard Alliance, we're watching unmanned surface vehicles such as the Saildrone Explorer and Martac's Devil Ray glide in formation with crewed vessels. These aren't science-fair toys. They're the spear point of a NATO-wide effort to fill the surveillance gaps in increasingly contested waters. This week in The Hague, the issue will be high on the agenda of world leaders as they come together to discuss and debate European security and, in particular, the rate of spending needed to keep the continent safe. Data from the new systems and unmanned vehicles taking part in these exercises will be fed directly to a screen in real-time during the summit, showcasing the technology's effectiveness in enhancing NATO's understanding of the Baltic region. Leaders will also be asked to endorse a new rapid adoption action plan to ensure NATO's defences remain fit for purpose in an era of rapidly evolving threats and disruptive technological advancements. Task Force X is designed to integrate uncrewed systems – surface, subsurface and aerial – into NATO's maritime task groups. It's a lesson in agility, drawn from the US Navy's successful experiments in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea. But where those missions focused on anti-terrorism and anti-piracy, this one is squarely about deterring sabotage, especially to undersea infrastructure. The recent spate of attacks has accelerated the mission's rollout, with several NATO nations contributing commercial off-the-shelf systems upgraded with AI detection, sonar arrays and encrypted communications. 'The idea is to decentralise detection,' says Captain David Portal of Allied Maritime Command. 'We use autonomous vessels to track anomalies – dark ships, unexpected activity around known cable routes – and then feed that data into a real-time, pan-alliance picture.' The goal? To spot suspicious activity before the cable is cut – not after. What makes this different from past NATO initiatives is its scope. Task Force X isn't just plugging in new drones – it's part of a broader 'digital ocean vision', which seeks to use AI, big data and machine learning to create a living, learning map of NATO waters. Simon Purton, the head of innovation at NATO's Allied Command Transformation, says the organisation has moved with unprecedented speed following the disruptions to undersea infrastructure in the past year, integrating the allies' capabilities with scalable platforms to provide situational awareness, and deterrence, 24/7. 'The future that we see for the military exists in our industry ... in academia ... in our science and technology labs,' he says. 'So what we're trying to do then is create some tangible delivery on that, and also make sure that things are operationally relevant.' Loading Onboard the ship Alliance, that transformation is tangible. In the ship's command centre, researchers and officers watch sonar feeds and machine-learning-driven anomaly alerts. On-screen blips mark every commercial vessel. More worrying are the gaps – ship tracks that go dark near critical cable corridors, only to reappear hours later, far from where they should be. The stakes aren't abstract. In January, foreign ministers from Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania issued a joint communique pledging to 'intensify maritime patrols' after more confirmed sabotage incidents. While none pointed fingers directly, the language was unequivocal: this was the work of hostile actors. Russia, for its part, denies involvement. But few NATO commanders are buying that narrative. Australia's vast digital economy, worth billions of dollars, relies almost entirely on a surprisingly small and vulnerable network: just 15 known international subsea cables. These vital conduits, stretching to international hubs such as Singapore and Hawaii, carry 99 per cent of the nation's data traffic. It is one of the many reasons NATO is working with its 'Indo-Pacific 4' partners – Australia, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand. A NATO official tells me that the need to protect critical undersea infrastructure is a 'topic of increasing concern' in both the Euro-Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific. 'For this reason, we are sharing information and best practices about how we are going about it,' the official says. 'We also see potential for co-operation ... specifically in the area of technology development to allow us to better survey our critical undersea infrastructure.' With its blend of national contributions and off-the-shelf tech, the exercises are designed to deter further mischief, not through confrontation, but through visibility. The thinking is simple: if you can be seen, you can be deterred. Still, Task Force X is not without challenges. As with any move towards automation, there are questions around command authority, cyber vulnerabilities and even the ethics of allowing AI to classify potential threats. But few aboard Alliance seem bogged down in philosophical hand-wringing. The pace of experimentation is brisk. The political appetite, sharpened by recent attacks, is real. As I disembark under a steely Nordic sky, one thing is clear: the front lines of conflict are no longer just on land, sea or air. They are digital, invisible and, increasingly, underwater.
