Prosecutors in Termini Imerese have officially placed the captain of the Bayesian, James Cutfield, under investigation on shipwreck and multiple manslaughter charges in the probe into the deaths of seven people after the superyacht belonging to British tech magnate Mike Lynch sank on Monday off Porticello, near Palermo, the online edition of Rome daily La Repubblica first reported on Monday.
Cutfield on Sunday was questioned by magistrates for two hours.
Seven people died in the shipwreck, including Lynch.
Cutfield, the 50-year-old New Zealander in charge of the Bayesian, was questioned for the second time in a week by Termini Imerese prosecutors probing the case.
During the two-hour-long meeting, the captain replied to questions on the position of the tender, on whether doors and hatches were closed and on when the alarm was sounded after the Bayesian was struck by what authorities think was a localised, very powerful extreme weather event called a downburst.
Under consideration were also the approximately 32 minutes between when the 56-meter-long superyacht started taking in water and when a red flare was launched from a life raft at 4:38 on Monday, investigative sources said.
The official probe opened into the captain's potential responsibility in the accident was a key step for prosecutors to proceed with the autopsies on the seven victims to be carried out by the doctors of the institute of forensic medicine of the local Policlinico hospital, investigative sources explained.
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