DOOMED YACHT
‘UK Bill Gates’ Mike Lynch & daughter Hannah, 18, feared dead after hosting party on £14m Bayesian yacht hit by tornado
Footage shows teams of rescuers desperately searching for survivors on Monday
A TYCOON known as 'Britain's Bill Gates' is among six people feared dead after his superyacht was capsized by a tornado.
Autonomy founder Mike Lynch, 59, his daughter Hannah, 18, and Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer, 70, are among four Brits still missing.
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
15
The £14m luxury vessel Bayesian sank off the coast of Sicily about 4am on Monday.
A body has already been pulled from the water - believed to be that of chef Canadian Ricardo Thomas.
The twister hit when most of the 12 passengers and 10 crew were in their cabins, with the yacht anchored outside the harbour at Porticello, east of the Italian island's capital Palermo.
The horror waterspout snapped the 246ft sail mast - the world's second tallest, according to witnesses.
Read more on world news
Lynch - worth an estimated £852m - and his family were hosting guests from his legal firm and his company Invoke Capital to celebrate a US jury clearing him of fraud earlier this summer.
He was extradited to the US in 2023 over the £8.5billion sale of his software firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
He was accused of inflating the company’s value.
In an odd twist of fate, Lynch's ex-colleague and fraud trial co-defendant Stephen Chamberlain died days before the yacht tragedy.
Most read in The Sun
He was struck by a car while out running on Saturday in Cambridgeshire and died in hospital the following day.
Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, 57, survived the tragedy but was in a wheelchair on Monday after suffering horrific injuries to both feet, believed to be from broken glass.
YACHT SINKS
She reportedly told doctors they were woken at 4am as the 180ft boat tilted sharply before a scene of “confusion as glass shattered” and “everything slipped”.
The captain of nearby Dutch boat the Sir Robert BP told how he helped to pull survivors from the water — including three who were seriously injured — before the coastguard arrived on the scene.
Karsten Borner said the Bayesian “went flat on the water and then down”, adding: “There was a light and we saw that the ship was aside and then we saw a triangle. So I think she went back down.”
Local fishermen also raised the alarm with port authorities.
Pietro Asciutto told reporters he watched the boat capsize, adding: “I was at home when the tornado hit.
“I immediately closed all the windows. Then I saw the boat, it had only one mast, it was very large. I saw it sink suddenly.
“Shortly after I went down to get a better look at what was happening. The boat was still floating, then suddenly it disappeared. I saw it sink with my own eyes.”
He stayed on site for three hours but saw no sign of any survivors.
It is feared those unaccounted for may have been trapped inside their cabins as the yacht was struck by violent winds and rain overnight.
Helicopters, boats and firefighters continued to search for the missing last night.
Four Brits and two Americans remained unaccounted for.
French captain Matthew Griffith was among the 15 people rescued.
Lynch, compared to Microsoft magnate Bill Gates, faced 20 years in jail and said he feared dying behind bars if found guilty.
He had spent a year under house arrest in the States.
The dad-of-two Lynch, born in Ilford, East London, was cleared of 16 counts of wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy, following a trial in San Francisco two months ago.
15
15
15
15
After being cleared he insisted: “It’s bizarre, but now you have a second life.
"The question is, what do you want to do with it?”
A one-year-old British girl named Sophia was rescued by her mother Charoltte Golunski in the sea after the sinking before they were rushed to hospital.
Golunski spoke about the frantic rescue, telling Giornale di Sicilia: "For two seconds I lost the baby in the sea, then I immediately hugged her again amidst the fury of the waves.
"I held her tightly, close to me, while the sea was stormy. Many were screaming.
I held her tightly, close to me, while the sea was stormy. Many were screaming
Charlotte
"I screamed for help but all I could hear around me was the screams of others.
"Luckily the lifeboat inflated and 11 of us managed to get on board."
Charlotte managed to swim over to one of the rafts where she and her daughter were taken to safety along with 11 others.
Dad James Emsilie was also onboard at the time of the horror ordeal and wasn't able to find his family after being swept away by the sea.
One of the survivors of the tragedy is Ayla Ronald, 36, a senior associate at the Clifford Chance law firm, who was part of Mr Lynch’s legal team.
She and her partner Matthew Fletcher, who was also on board, were understood to have escaped the sinking uninjured.
Her father Lin Ronald, who works in yacht sales in Christchurch, New Zealand, told The Sun: “Ayla sent me a text a few hours ago to say she was alive and well, as is her partner Matthew.
“She was invited to go sailing by Mike Lynch to celebrate winning his recent United States court case.
“It was supposed to be a celebration cruise of sorts. I believe they had only been sailing a couple of days.”
Yacht firm Camper &; Nicholsons, which manages operations on the Bayesian, said there were a total of 12 guests and ten crew.
MOST PASSENGERS FROM UK
The majority of passengers were understood to be from the UK.
Citizens from New Zealand, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Canada, the US and two dual British-French nationals were also on board.
Eight of those rescued were receiving treatment in hospital last night, according to the Italian Coastguard. None was thought to be in a serious condition.
Among the injured are the lawyer Ms Ronald; Sasha Murray, 29, of Ireland; James Catfield, 51, from New Zealand, and Myin Kyaw Htun, 39, from Myanmar.
Divers were understood to have reached the yacht’s hull, which is 160ft below the water and around half a mile from the coast.
An eyewitness, who said there had earlier been a party on the yacht, told a website: “The vessel wasn’t far from the port.
“It didn’t take much to raise the anchor and head for the port.
“Evidently, they were surprised by the storm that suddenly hit and were unable to avoid the sinking.”
The yacht, under a British flag, was previously named the Salute.
Italian prosecutors confirmed they had opened an investigation into the sinking.
The public prosecutor’s office in Termini Imerese has also opened a file on the tragedy.
Staff working for Lynch were unwilling to comment at his Georgian manor house in Pettistree near Woodbridge, Suffolk.
The tycoon and his wife were thought to have lived at Loudham Hall for the last 15 years.
The gates at the top of the long drive to the 16th-century property remained closed on Monday night as details emerged of the yachting tragedy.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
One member of staff said on an intercom: “I’m afraid we can’t comment at the moment.”
Invoke Capital, one of Lynch's companies has been approached for comment by The Sun.
Who is Mike Lynch?
By Georgie English
Entrepreneur Mike Lynch is still believed to be missing hours after a £14m luxury yacht capsized in a tornado off the coast of Sicily.
The tech tycoon, dubbed "Britain's Bill Gates", was one of the 22 people sailing onboard the £166,000 a week vessel, the Telegraph reported this afternoon.
Lynch, 59, sold Autonomy Corporation - a tech company for $11b to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
He has also been involved in Invoke Capital and cybersecurity company Darktrace.
He was awarded an OBE for his services to enterprise in 2006.
Born in Ilford, Lynch had a firefighter father from County Cork and a nurse mother from County Tipperary.
Away from work, Mike is married to wife Angela Bacares and the pair have two children together.
In 2023, the Sunday Times rich list set the couple's value at £852m.
Just weeks ago, Lynch was acquitted of criminal charges by a jury in San Francisco after a 12-year legal battle over the $11bn sale of his firm, Autonomy, to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
He was extradited to the US on fraud charges back in 2023 with a judge setting his bail at £79m.
US Marshsals took Lynch into custody at Heathrow, putting him in chains and bundling him on board a United Airlines flight.
However, he had a few things in his favour.
The nature of the case led to a boring and turgid trial, including painstaking parades of emails, reports and spreadsheets filled with jargon, leaving jurors glassy-eyed.
One was even dismissed because he repeatedly fell asleep.
Lynch argued that any questionable activity was entirely immaterial in the context of a thriving business bringing in hundreds of millions a year.
While his lawyers claimed the books were approved by outside accountants and that, by British standards, the deals in question were appropriately accounted for.
Lynch was used as the final witness and rather than going "right for the jugular", as his head lawyer Brian Heberlig said, the prosecutors simply "reviewed a chronology of documents, with no probing questions". The jury agreed.
15
15
15
Topics