The fifth body retrieved by a team of
firefighter divers on Thursday belongs to British magnate Mike
Lynch, whose Bayesian luxury boat sank at dawn off the coast of
Porticello near Palermo, rescue sources said.
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.
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