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 a tornado-like waterspout, investigative
sources said.
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.
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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