Plans to lift the Bayesian from the seabed are expected to be confirmed within weeks, after divers and robots inspect the doomed luxury superyacht.
The 56-metre-long vessel has been submerged since it sank off the coast of Sicily on August 19, killing British tech billionaire Mike Lynch, his 18-year-old daughter Hannah and five others.
The Public Prosecution Service is investigating the captain and two British crew members as part of an investigation into culpable shipwreck and suspected multiple manslaughter.
They therefore want the British-flagged yacht to be raised as soon as possible to find out whether the ship has flooded because the external hatches and doors were left open.
The three men under investigation since late August are James Cutfield, the captain; Tim Parker Eaton, the engineer in charge of securing the yacht’s engine room; and Matthew Griffith, a sailor who was on watch on the night of the disaster.
Italian fire brigade divers at Porticello on August 23 as they recover the bodies of the dead
Italian divers inspect the wreck of the Bayesian yacht off the coast of Sicily on August 23
A fire brigade diving team leaves Porticello and heads to the rescue site in Sicily on August 23
Now a spokesman for the Italian coast guard has said The Times: ‘We expect the Bayesian increase plan to be submitted to us for approval within a few weeks. Everyone wants to move quickly.’
The £30million yacht lies on its starboard side, about 50 metres below sea level, near the fishing port of Porticello, after sinking in a violent storm.
Divers from the Italian fire brigade recovered the bodies, while divers from the Italian Navy’s special units were asked to recover the boat’s data recorder as evidence for the camera footage.
The proceeds are being paid for by the owner of the Bayesian, the British company Revtom, which is run by Angela Bacares, Lynch’s wife, who was one of the 15 survivors.
Genoa-based diving company Drafinsub used sonar and video footage from a robot to map the yacht’s hull, anchor chain and surrounding seabed.
Hannah Lynch with her father Mike Lynch. Both died when his superyacht sank last month
The Bayesian (file photo) sank off the coast of Sicily on August 19 during severe storm conditions
Mike Lynch with his wife Angela Bacares, who managed to escape the disaster off the coast of Sicily
Drafinsub has now completed its investigation and will hand over the data to Revtom, who hired it to do the work.
The Italian coast guard told the newspaper that Revtom will now “study the data, select the company that will raise the vessel and present us and the insurers with their plan for the operation, which we will approve.”
Chief Prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio, who is leading the investigation, said earlier that his team will consider all possible elements of responsibility, including those of the captain, the crew, those responsible for supervision and the yacht’s manufacturer.
Investigators are investigating how a sailing ship, considered “unsinkable” by its manufacturer, Italian shipyard Perini Navi, could sink while a nearby sailboat remained largely unscathed.
Prosecutors said the event was “extremely rapid” and could have been a “downburst” — a localized, strong wind that descends from a thunderstorm and quickly dissipates as it hits the ground.
Divers prepare to conduct inspections of the Bayesian wreck at Porticello on August 23
A diver enters the water off the coast of Sicily on August 23 as the team conducts an inspection
All crew members, except the cook, survived the disaster. Six passengers were trapped in the yacht’s hull and died.
The Bayesian value is not expected to be increased until 18,000 litres of fuel have been removed from the tank, to prevent it from contaminating the water.
The operation to lift the yacht out of the water could take six to eight weeks and will require cranes and around 40 divers.
Nick Sloane, who led the salvage operation of the 2012 sinking cruise ship Costa Concordia, said the cost of the operation had reached £12.7 million.
Last month he told La Repubblica it should be completed by mid-October, without giving a reason for the timing.
The engineer said platforms would be built and that raising the yacht would have to be done “very, very slowly”. He added: “The ship has to be recovered as it is, in one piece, and we are trying to keep it intact as much as possible.”
Bank manager Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy died in the superyacht disaster on August 19
Clifford Chance attorney Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo were also among the dead
The underwater conditions are described by divers as ‘complex’ and ‘hindering’.
Vincenzo Zagarola, who was part of the Italian coastguard operations, previously told The Sun it had been “extremely heavy” and described it as an “18-storey building full of water”.
The incident comes after a lawyer representing the builder of the Bayesian shipyard was dismissed after he brought an unauthorised £186m lawsuit against Ms Lynch and the crew.
Tommaso Bertuccelli, a lawyer working for The Italian Sea Group (TISG), filed a writ last week declaring that Ms Lynch and the crew are liable for the yacht’s sinking.
But on Monday a source at TISG confirmed that the lawsuit had been filed “without their knowledge and consent” and that Mr Bertuccelli had been fired as a result.
The body of chef Recaldo Thomas was discovered on the day of the sinking last month
Meanwhile, US technology giant Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) continues to pursue £3 billion of Lynch’s estate.
Mrs Lynch and her family had boarded the yacht after Mr Lynch won a long-running legal case in America.
He faced 15 fraud charges relating to the £8.8bn sale of his technology company Autonomy to HPE in 2011. If he had lost the case, he would have faced the rest of his life in prison, but in June a jury acquitted him on all counts.
Earlier, in 2022, HPE won a separate case in the UK High Court, resulting in a claim for £3 billion in damages, which it now says Ms Lynch is owed.