Bayesian yacht: Video shows storm-tossed boat before sinking in Sicily

CNN
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Security camera footage showing the moments before a tornado sank a luxury yacht off the coast of Sicily has emerged as rescue workers face tough conditions in the ongoing search for six missing people.

The black and white video appears to show the British-flagged yacht Bayesian being hit by a violent storm on Monday. As rain pelt the harbor, the grainy video shows the boat rocking violently from side to side before capsizing.

CNN could not independently verify the location or date of the video, but the profile of the ship shown in the footage appears to match the Bayesian design.

The ship sank early Monday morning – killing at least one of the 22 people on board – after its mast, one of the tallest in the world, broke in half during the storm. Fifteen people were rescued.

The body recovered from the ship was that of the ship's cook, Ricardo Thomas, an Antiguan national, Reuters reported.

According to the Sicilian Civil Protection, the missing people include British technology magnate Mike Lynch, Jonathan Bloomer, director of Morgan Stanley International, and Chris Movillo, a well-known American lawyer.

Lynch's 18-year-old daughter is also missing. His wife, Angela Barcares, survived. Bacares told Italian daily La Repubblica that she was awakened at 4 a.m. local time when the boat capsized while she was sitting in a wheelchair in a Sicilian hospital.

She and her husband were not worried at first, she said, but when the yacht's windows shattered, they panicked.

The yacht sank after a small waterspout – a type of tornado – swept across the Mediterranean island, likely capsizing the boat as it was anchored about half a mile from Porticello harbor. Witnesses reported violent storms and hurricane-force winds that left a mountain of debris near the pier.

A witness, the owner of a villa overlooking the Bayesian's anchorage, said that after news of the sinking yacht emerged, he looked again at the video footage from his surveillance cameras and could see the boat sinking.

“In just 60 seconds you can see the ship disappear,” he told Italian broadcaster ANSA. “You can clearly see what is happening. There was nothing more that could be done for the ship. It disappeared in a very short time.”

Since the ship sank on Monday, rescue teams have been trying to penetrate deeper into the wreck, but hopes of finding survivors are fading.

On Tuesday, divers were able to reach the interior of the wreck, including some rooms under the yacht's bridge, but operations were “complex” due to numerous obstacles and narrow passages inside the vessel, the brigade said, adding that the operation on Wednesday would attempt to open some of those passages.

Rescue workers resumed their search for missing people on Wednesday and began examining the ship's common areas, ANSA reported. No further bodies have been recovered so far.

The rescue effort is complicated by the short time divers can stay at the wreck site, which is believed to be about 50 metres underwater. The Italian fire service warned that divers have only up to 12 minutes to reach and explore the site before having to resurface.

Three days after the accident, investigators are still baffled as to how the ship sank so quickly. Matthew Schanck, chairman of the Maritime Search and Rescue Council, said on Tuesday that such incidents are extremely rare.

“When you look at the extreme weather, I would call it a black swan event if it was a waterspout, and that appears to be the case,” he said, referring to a rare, unpredictable event. “Even outside of the shipping industry, all industries deal with black swan events,” he added.

And although Sicily is not exactly “known” for tornadoes or waterspouts, there is “a risk” that one could happen – but not every day, said Schanck.

“I think it is important to see what comes out of this, which may suggest changes to ship design and stability,” he said, stressing that all shipbuilding regulations “are designed with safety in mind.”

Meanwhile, the British Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) announced that it would send a four-member team of inspectors to Palermo to make a preliminary assessment of the accident site.