ROME (AP) — The prosecutor of the Sicilian town of Termini Imerese, in the province of Palermo, announced that an investigation for negligent shipwreck and multiple involuntary manslaughter has been opened following the sinking of a superyacht during a storm off the coast of Sicily.
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Ambrogio Cartosio, the prosecutor in charge, emphasized that no suspects have been identified in the tragedy in which seven people died on board, including British technology magnate Mike Lynch and his daughter.
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Will the prosecutor investigate the yacht captain?
"We are only in the initial phase of the investigation. At this moment, we cannot exclude any type of event," said to reporters at a press conference.
Cartosio said that his team will carefully consider every possible element of responsibility, including those of the ship's captain, the crew, the individuals in charge of supervision, the shipbuilder, and others.
"For me, it is likely that crimes have been committed, that this is a case of involuntary manslaughter, but we will only be able to establish it if they give us the time to investigate," he added.
The main issue that researchers are focusing on is how a vessel considered "unsinkable" by its manufacturer, the Perini Navi shipyard, ended up sinking, while a sailboat that was nearby the superyacht was practically undamaged.
How did the superyacht tragedy occur?
The prosecution said that the incident was "extremely fast" and that the information they have obtained seems to point to a "downburst," a strong gust of wind that descends from a storm and spreads rapidly upon reaching land.
Initially, civil protection authorities believed that the yacht, which had a distinctive 75-meter (246-foot) aluminum mast, had been hit by a waterspout, also known as a tornado over water.
The researchers also wondered why almost the entire crew survived, except for the chef, while six passengers were trapped in the hull.
Local authorities confirmed that most of the recovered bodies were found in the same part of the ship —on the left side and near the surface—, indicating that the passengers sought refuge in the cabins, where the last air bubbles formed.
Deputy prosecutor Raffaele Cammarano said that the passengers were probably asleep and added that one of the main elements of the investigation is to determine if someone alerted them.
On Friday, rescuers brought ashore the body of the last person who was still missing after the sinking of the Bayesian, a 56-meter (184-foot) luxury superyacht with a British flag, which sank in the middle of a storm early Monday with 10 passengers and a crew of 12 members.
The seventh deceased person is Hannah Lynch, an 18-year-old teenager and daughter of British technology mogul Mike Lynch, whose body had been recovered on Thursday. The mogul was celebrating his recent acquittal on fraud charges in the company of his family and people who had defended him in a trial in the United States. His wife, Angela Bacares, was one of the 15 survivors.
The other five deceased individuals are Christopher Morvillo, one of Lynch’s American lawyers, and his wife, Neda; Jonathan Bloomer, president of Morgan Stanley’s London-based investment banking subsidiary, and his wife, Judy; and Recaldo Thomas, the yacht’s chef.