THE first parts of tragic tycoon Mike Lynch’s superyacht Bayesian have been raised from the seabed.
Divers recovered the main boom and anchor, nine months after the billionaire, his daughter Hannah and five others died after the ship sank off the coast of Sicily.
PAThe first parts of Mike Lynch’s superyacht have been recovered[/caption]
TMC Marine/PA WireThe superyacht’s main boom and anchor having now been recovered from the seabed[/caption]
EPAThe boat sank off the coast of Sicily last August[/caption]
A pole which holds the bottom of the sail on the 184ft yacht was also recovered.
Salvors used a diamond cutting wire on the boom, sail and furling gear near the mast.
They lifted them onto Hebo Lift 2, a multi-purpose floating barge equipped with diving and underwater vehicle systems.
A high-tech remote-controlled submersible was then used to cut one of the vessel’s anchor chains, allowing it to be brought up from its position 164ft below the water.
Further specialist equipment is required for the eventual lifting of the entire £14million Bayesian.
It will be loaded onto the colossal 5,695-gross-tonne Hebo Lift 10 – said to be the biggest in Europe.
It is hoped that salvaging the wreckage of the sunken ship from its position 164ft below the water will provide some answers about the disaster.
Progress is also being made securing the vessel’s tank vents and openings which will reduce the chances of pollution in future operations.
Operations to position steel lifting slings and other lifting gear underneath the massive Bayesian have also begun.
Once in position, salvage crews will begin detaching the vessel’s extensive rigging, 72-metre mast, spreaders, and remaining sails to allow the gruelling task of lifting the ship to proceed safely.
Spokesperson for TMC Marine Marcus Cave, which is overseeing salvage efforts, said: “Over the past 10 days, the team has developed alternate methods to undertake certain tasks for this project.
“This will minimise diving activity and increase the use of equipment that is controlled directly from the floating work platforms.
He added: “Whilst this change will increase the time it will take to complete this project; it will continue to prioritise the safety of those working on this complex lifting and recovery operation.”
Seven people died when Brit billionaire Mike Lynch’s luxury vessel sank off the coast of Porticello in Sicily during a storm last year.
The luxury Bayesian sank while anchored 985ft off the coast of a small fishing port near Palermo.
Among the victims were businessman Mike Lynch, 59, and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah.
AlamyThe Hebo Lift 10 floating crane will help recover the Bayesian yacht alongside divers and drones[/caption]
EPASpecial diving units have been making routine inspections of the Bayesian since it sank[/caption]
Just two months before the disaster, Lynch had been cleared of carrying out a massive fraud over the sale of his software firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
The boat trip was a celebration of his acquittal in the case in the US.
Morgan Stanley boss Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy, US lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda, and the yacht’s chef Recaldo Thomas were also killed on board.
Fifteen others were rescued from the yacht on emergency lifeboats.
The accident is still being treated as suspected manslaughter, with New Zealander captain James Cutfield and two British crew members under investigation by Italian authorities.
Britain’s Maritime Coastguard Agency is also probing the tragedy.
Inside the Bayesian’s final 16 minutes
By Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
Data recovered from the Bayesian’s Automatic Identification System (AIS) breaks down exactly how it sank in a painful minute-by-minute timeline.
At 3.50am on Monday August 19 the Bayesian began to shake “dangerously” during a fierce storm, Italian outlet Corriere revealed.
Just minutes later at 3.59am the boat’s anchor gave way, with a source saying the data showed there was “no anchor left to hold”.
After the ferocious weather ripped away the boat’s mooring it was dragged some 358 metres through the water.
By 4am it had began to take on water and was plunged into a blackout, indicating that the waves had reached its generator or even engine room.
At 4.05am the Bayesian fully disappeared underneath the waves.
An emergency GPS signal was finally emitted at 4.06am to the coastguard station in Bari, a city nearby, alerting them that the vessel had sunk.
Early reports suggested the disaster struck around 5am local time off the coast of Porticello Harbour in Palermo, Sicily.
The new data pulled from the boat’s AIS appears to suggest it happened an hour earlier at around 4am.
Some 15 of the 22 onboard were rescued, 11 of them scrambling onto an inflatable life raft that sprung up on the deck.
A smaller nearby boat – named Sir Robert Baden Powell – then helped take those people to shore.
Bayesian – which had one of the world’s tallest masts – has been carefully monitored by anti-pollution specialists since it sank on August 19.
Cave added: “We have three project goals – to protect the safety of personnel working on site, to safeguard the marine environment, and to safely recover the Bayesian.
“Our plans are progressing to schedule, and we will continue to update on progress throughout.”
In total, examinations on the raised yacht are expected to take a few months to be completed.
The first piece recovered comes after a bombshell report revealed the astonishing “vulnerability” of Mike Lynch’s “unsinkable” Bayesian.
After examining the sinking of the 180ft ship, investigators said the ship was knocked over by “extreme wind” and could not recover.
A picture taken of the yacht just 14 minutes before it tragically sunk
EPAMike Lynch and his daughter were among the seven people who died in the deadly sinking[/caption]
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