The fifth body retrieved by a team of firefighter diversbelongs to British magnate Mike Lynch, whose Bayesian luxury boat sank at dawn off the coast of Porticello near Palermo, rescue sources said on Thursday.
Lynch's daughter Hannah, 18, remains the only missing passenger after four bodies recovered by divers on Wednesday from the Bayesian were identified as Jonathan Bloomer, president of Morgan Stanley International, his wife Anne Elizabeth, Lynch's lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Nada.
Search operations resumed on Thursday with firefighter and coast guard units, including experts who took part in the mission following the deadly shipwreck of the Concordia, the cruise ship that sank in the night between January 13 and 14, 2012.
The divers are using a ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) to help retrieve the last body from the wreck, which is lying at a depth of approximately 50 metres underwater.
The "robot" is able to operate at a depth of up to 300 metres under water and has an autonomy of six to seven hours.
Meanwhile in an interview published on Thursday by Milan daily Corriere della Sera, Giovanni Costantino, founder and CEO of the Italian Sea Group, the listed company which owns the assets of Viareggio-based Perini Navi that built the sunken luxury yacht Bayesian in 2008, said the boat was safe and a number of mistakes were made on board prior to the accident, a video of which shows the boat apparently sinking in 60 seconds.
"Everything that was done reveals a very long sum of errors", he told the newspaper.
"People should not have been in their cabins, the boat should not have been anchored" and all the doors and hatches should have been closed, he noted, adding that camera footage of the ship from shore showed lights on its mast went out, indicating a short circuit caused by the ship taking in a lot of water, according to Costantino.
"And, also, why did crew members not know about the incoming bad weather? Passengers reported an absurd thing - that the storm arrived unexpectedly, suddenly.
"It's not true", noted Costantino, adding bad weather had been forecast.
"It is good practice when the ship is at anchor to have a guard on the bridge, and if there had been one, he couldn't have missed the arrival of the storm", he added.
"Instead, it took on water with the guests still in the cabin.
" They were trapped, those poor people ended up like mice", he concluded.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
