Tragic new details about the Bayesian superyacht disaster have been revealed as a new report shows how the sinking unfolded minute by minute
When the £30 million Bayesian superyacht sank in a freak storm last year, seven people tragically lost their lives, including British billionaire Mike Lynch, and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah.
A new interim report into what happened has provided terrifying new details into the last moments of the victims – who were due to return home the following day.
On 18 August, the guests on the superyacht were poised to leave their week-long luxurious stay on the 56-metre boat, which had been cruising the coast of Sicily, when the crew decided to move the vessel to a more sheltered spot near Porticello to avoid an incoming storm.
After putting down the anchor in the spot they believed would be safe from the bad weather, for a few hours the winds remained stable, and not long after midnight, the Captain – James Cutfield – headed to bed, leaving instructions with the deckhand on night watch duty to come and get him if wind speeds increased over 20 knots, the Times reports.
For a few more hours, as the guests and most of the crew slept peacefully, things remained calm, with Matthew Griffiths – the deckhand – noting that the wind was only at eight knots but filming a clip of the storm raging in the distance that he posted on social media at 3.55 am on 19 August.
Only two minutes after Matthew had posted on social media, wind speeds rocketed up to 35 mph, and he quickly alerted the captain that he believed the anchor was dragging.
The crew sprang into action, and some of the guests got up, awakened by the activity and sudden, extreme winds. Despite the intensity of the winds, the tragic events that were about to unfold were still unknown to the crew, with Chef Recaldo Thomas even reportedly joking ‘Good Morning!’ with his fellow crew members and he storm-proofed the galley.
As the Chief Engineer, Captain, and other crew members prepared to move the superyacht, Lynch’s wife – Angela Bacares – is reported to have asked staff if their planned journey home would still go ahead in light of the bad weather, and Charlotte Golunski – a coworker of the billionaire – went up to the Saloon with her baby and other half James Emslie.
All of this happened in just a few minutes, and the captain was about to move the yacht to face the winds themselves, when the wind speeds intensified sharply, reaching over 70 knots (80.5 mph) – a level that is considered beyond the force of a hurricane, according to the report.
At 4.06 am, the unthinkable happened – the awning was ripped away and the Baynesian “violently heeled over” in just a matter of seconds. People and furniture were sent flying as the boat tipped 90 degrees onto the starboard side. Only the emergency lights would have lit the vessel as it lurched onto its side and then after a brief pause, water began to pour into the superyacht.
Lynch’s wife Bacares was injured from the yacht tipping over, as was the captain. Griffiths, the deckhand who had sounded the alarm while on the night watch, had been thrown into the sea. The Chief Officer grabbed Bacares, Golunski, and her baby and dragged them through the huge amounts of water to the flying bridge.
In one of the cabins, two guests – Matthew Fletcher and Ayla Ronald – “scrambled up by creating a makeshift ladder out of drawers, climbing the walls of the corridor toward the saloon,” the Times reports.
Griffiths managed to climb back onto the boat and helped lift Fletcher and Ronald into the flying bridge, but then got trapped alongside the Chief Steward, Sasha Murphy, in the wheelhouse. The pair were in an air pocket and only escaped because a guest on the other side of the door managed to help get it open.
The Chief Officer, who had already helped guests escape immediate danger, found himself swept to the back of the saloon – while there was still a pocket of air there, he had no choice but to dive into the water that had filled the space and escape through the door at the rear of the room, before swimming away from the rapidly sinking yacht.
Of the 22 people on board, 15 escaped the Bayesian, left treading water in the sea with Golunski’s baby on a cushion, as the yacht quickly sank. Seven people lost their lives underwater – with a leaked autopsy report providing chilling details about their deaths.
Mick and Hannah Lynch, died alongside Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer, 70, and his wife, Judy, 71, – all of whom were British nationals.
US lawyer Chris Morvillo and wife Neda also tragically died when the Bayesian sank, as well as chef Recaldo Thomas, who had only minutes before been cheerfully joking with his colleagues as they attempted to deal with the storm.
Four of these victims – the Morvillos and the Bloomers – did not drown in the water that was filling the vessel but suffocated – with the autopsy reportedly not showing any water in their lungs. This means that they would have been conscious, in air pockets inside the cabins, desperately trying to escape and likely rapidly becoming aware of the fate that awaited them. The oxygen in the air pockets would have run out quickly, becoming filled with carbon dioxide, leaving them to suffocate.
Only Chef Recaldo was pronounced dead straight away, with the other six bodies taking days to recover from where the boat had sunk. One of the divers who took part in the expedition to recover the bodies of the victims said, “Inside it was a very confusing place, with wardrobes and furniture whirling all around us, and lots of mirrors reflecting back our lights at us. The bodies were all wedged in tight spots, with furniture on top or beside them. They were all stuck there.”
At 4.24 am the Chief Officer managed to untie and inflate a life raft for the survivors who had been treading water. Ten minutes later the crew attempted to fire a flare, but the strong winds meant this was unsuccessful, and they were forced to remain in the sea until they managed to fire another flare at 4.34 am, which attracted the attention of a nearby boat who sent help and rescued them.
It was that moment they were on the liferaft, while the crew gave first aid to the injured, that they watched the bow of the Bayesian rise before sinking entirely into 50-metre deep water.