Five bodies of passengers recovered from the sunken wreckage of the superyacht Bayesian have been identified, including U.K. tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, according to Sky News, citing the Italian coast guard.
Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judith Bloomer, lawyer Christopher Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo have also been identified after the bodies were recovered by the coast guard, Sky News reported.
Lynch's 18-year-old daughter remains the only person on the vessel unaccounted for. Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, was among the fifteen people rescued by the Italian coast guard on Monday.
The official death toll for the sinking is now six people, after the first death was confirmed when officials recovered the body of Recaldo Thomas, the yacht's chef, a few hours after the vessel sank.
According to the BBC, the boat was owned by a company called Revtom, which lists Bacares as its sole legal owner.
The yacht sank off the coast of Sicily on Monday, when it was hit by a freak tornado. The yacht was worth around $18 million, and has now settled over 164 feet below the surface. This has made rescue efforts and searches more difficult, as it drastically limits the amount of time divers can be underwater.
Those rescued were taken to hospitals in the Sicilian city, including a 1-year-old child who was taken to Palermo's children's hospital.
Early indications have suggested that abnormally high water temperatures in the Mediterranean could have created a waterspout—a ferocious column of rotating air and mist—that engulfed the ship.
While many waterspouts are relatively brief and mild, lasting only seconds and producing moderate gusts, some can develop into more potent and enduring systems.
According to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, the captain of the Bayesian, who was hospitalized after being rescued, had no idea the tornado was approaching the ship, saying: "We didn't see it coming."
Fire rescue crews reported that divers were unable to access the below-deck cabins because they were blocked by debris that had shifted during the violent storm.
"Access was limited to the bridge, due to the difficulty represented by the presence of furnishings obstructing the divers' passage," the fire crews said in a statement.
This is a developing news story and will be updated with further information.
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Update, 8/22/24, 05:07 a.m. ET: This story was updated with additional information.
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