Bayesian yacht sinking: Black box reveals final 16 minutes before ship sunk | World | News

Data collected from the black box of the luxury yacht Bayesian has offered dramatic insight into the final 16 minutes of the ship before it sank just off the coast of Palermo.

Divers recovered the body of the final victim of the sinking – 18-year-old Hannah Lynch, the daughter of tycoon Mike Lynch – on Friday, five days after the ship was caught in a storm near the Italian island.

The black box showed the Bayesian began to shake “dangerously” at approximately 3.50 am on Monday morning, according to Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

Within minutes, the yacht’s anchor gave way. A source close to the investigation said the data had shown there was “no anchor left to hold,” by 3.59 am.

After a storm ripped the Bayesian’s mooring, the yacht was dragged through the water for some 358 metres and started taking in water at 4 am.

By 4.05 am, the superyacht had completely disappeared under the water with six passengers and one crew still inside.

A distress signal was finally emitted a minute later alerting the Coast Guard station nearest to Ponticello, the closest coastal town to where the ship vanished.

Witnesses initially reported seeing the Bayesian’s 246ft tall mast being struck by a “tornado,” which authorities later clarified had been a waterspout.

Officials thought the incident had unravelled around 5 am but the AIS now appears to show it happened approximately an hour earlier.

Eleven of the passengers managed to escape the yacht by scrambling into the inflatable life raft stored on the deck of the Bayesian.

Another four were rescued by a nearby ship, the Sir Robert Baden Powell, and brought them to shore.

Divers have since recovered seven bodies from the wreck, including owner Mike Lynch and daughter Hannah, 18.

Morgan Stanley International Bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer with wife Judy, Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his jewellery designer wife Nada as well as chef Recaldo Thomas also died.

Divers said they appeared to have fled their cabins on the right side of the boat – known as starboard – in a desperate bid to “climb” to safety to the port side.

One insider close to the investigation told the Italian outlet: “We found them all on that side.

“We had maps with the layout of the cabins and the positions of the guests, and that’s not where we recovered them.”

Rescuers struggled for four days to find all the missing bodies, making only slow headway through the interior of the wreck lying on the seabed 164 feet below the surface.

The main question investigators are focusing on is how a sailing vessel deemed “unsinkable” by its manufacturer, Italian shipyard Perini Navi, sank while a nearby sailboat remained largely unscathed.