Body of British businessman Mike Lynch recovered from deadly Italian yacht sinking

The Italian Coast Guard said Thursday the body of British tech magnate Mike Lynch is among those recovered off the coast of Sicily from the wreckage of a superyacht whose builders had called it unsinkable.

One woman remains missing. She has not been identified, but HannahLynch, Lynch's 18-year-old daughter, remainsunaccounted for.The family had been celebrating his recent acquittal on fraud charges with the people who defended him at trial in the United States.

Five otherswere recovered by rescue crews following Monday's tragedy.

The Bayesian, a 56-metre British-flagged yacht, went down in a storm early Monday as it was moored about a kilometre from shore. Civil protection officials said they believe the ship was struck by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout, and sank quickly.

WATCH l Why the search effort has been a struggle for divers:

Sicily superyacht rescue: What divers are up against | About That

1 month ago

Duration 5:47

Rescue efforts are underway in Sicily, after a luxury superyacht carrying 22 people was hit by a violent storm, causing it to suddenly capsize. Lauren Bird explains the challenges that divers face in finding the six missing passengers, and breaks down why time isn't on their side.

Divers have struggled to find the bodies.

"It's very difficult to move inside the wreckage. Moving just one metre can take up to 24 hours," said Luca Cari, spokesperson for the fire rescue service.

Hannah Lynch, the businessman's 18-year-old daughter, is among the boat occupants rescue teams were searching for this week,along with Judy and Jonathan Bloomer and Chris and Neda Morvillo.

Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, was among those who managed to get to safety, while the body of the onboard chef, Recaldo Thomas, was found near the wreck hours after the disaster.

Thomas was a native of Antigua but was raised in Calgary, according to Antiguan reports.

Questions about capsize remain

Fifteen of the 22 people aboard survived, including a mother who reported holding her one-year-old baby over the waves to save her.

They were rescued by the sailboat Sir Robert Baden Powell. The sailboat's captain, Karsten Borner, said he had remained anchored with his engines running to try to maintain the ship's position as the storm rolled in.

"Another possibility is to heave anchor before the storm and to run downwind at open sea," Borner said in a text message.

But he said that might not have been possible for the Bayesian, given its 75-metre-tall mast.

"If there was a stability problem, caused by the extremely tall mast, it would not have been better at open sea," he said.

Criminal investigation underway

Investigators from Termini Imerese Public Prosecutor's Officewere collecting evidence for a criminal investigation, which they opened immediatelyafter the tragedydespite no formal suspects having been publicly identified.

The chief executive of The Italian Sea Group, which owns the Bayesian's manufacturer, told AP in an interview on Thursday that superyachts like these are "designed to be unsinkable."

"And it is unsinkable not only because it is designed in this way, but also because it is a sailing ship and sailing ships are the safest ever," CEO Giovanni Costantino said.

Costantino added that "obviously they must not hit the rocks violently, discarding the hull, and they must not take in water," suggesting the second possibility was the most likely in this case.

Costantino also noted that sailing ships require "a greater competence" to be guided compared with motor boats. In a separate interview with Reuters, he said aseries of "indescribable, unreasonable errors" by the crew led to theshipwreck.

Yachts like the Bayesian are required to have watertight compartments that are specifically designed to prevent a rapid, catastrophic sinking even when some parts fill with water.

Lynch, 59, is the only person confirmed dead; the other bodies have not been formally identified by the Italian coast guard.

The Royal Academy of Engineering, where Lynch was a Fellow, said it was "deeply saddened" to learn of his death and that he played an "active role" as a mentor and donor.

Lynchfounded Autonomy, a software maker, in 1996.He later founded Invoke Capital, a venture capital firm that was a founding investor of British cybersecurity company Darktrace, as well as Luminance, an artificial intelligence platform for the legal industry.

Lynch sold Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011. But the deal quickly turned into an albatross for him after he was accused of cooking the books to make the sale and then fired by HP.

Lynch testified this year while facing fraud charges at trial in California in connection with the HP deal. Although he avoided the possibility of a prison sentence with a subsequent acquittal, Lynch still faced a potentially costly civil case in London.