Italian prosecutors say investigators are considering the possibility of murder in the sinking of the Baysian superyacht, which killed seven people.
Prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio said at a press conference on Saturday that “totally irreproachable conduct” could be behind the death toll off the coast of Sicily.
Investigators will focus on “the extent to which everyone on board was informed about the safety measures,” he said.
Responsibility could lie with “the entire crew… the manufacturers…” [or] people who did not monitor or supervise the vessel.
But he added that all lines of investigation were being considered, including the impact of the extreme weather that hit the area. Bodies found in two cabins
Firefighter Bentivoglio Fiandra said that when the emergency call came in at 4:38 a.m. on August 19, the yacht had already sunk and its right side was about 50 metres below the waterline.
The deceased could have been hiding in the “left cabin” of the vessel that was judged, or they could have been asleep and not been able to escape, he said.
Divers initially found the body of the on-board cook near the vessel, he added.
Rotating rescue teams then found five more people inside the yacht – in the first cabin on the left side – and the last one in the third cabin on that side.
Investigators will recover the wreck from the seabed to determine the circumstances of the yacht’s capsizing, at the expense of the owner, the prosecutor’s office said on Saturday.
So far there is no evidence that the vessel was anchored in an inconvenient location, he added.
Water samples have been taken near the wreck and there is so far no evidence that the yacht had leaked dangerous hydrocarbons, the press conference said.
Autopsies have yet to be performed
Autopsies have yet to be performed on the victims recovered from the wreck between Monday and Friday.
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, 59, was among the seven people killed when the yacht ran into trouble in the early hours of the morning and sank in just 60 seconds.
Also among them were Morgan Stanley CEO Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy, American lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda, and the yacht’s on-board chef, Leclado Thomas.
The last body to be recovered by divers on Friday was Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah. Her mother and wife Angela Bacalez survived the accident. Another daughter, Esme, was not on board but offered her condolences to her sister in a statement released by the family.
The family is said to have organised the trip to celebrate the end of Lynch’s legal troubles.
In July, he was acquitted in the US of 15 fraud charges. The case lasted 12 years and revolved around the sale of his company Autonomy to the US company Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
Prosecutors alleged that he had deliberately inflated the value of the company he founded in 1996. Lynch has always denied any wrongdoing.