Twin brother of missing Morgan Stanley boss Jonathon Bloomer says it is still a ‘wait and see situation’ as hopes of finding the missing Sicily superyacht passengers fade
The twin brother of missing Morgan Stanley executive Jonathon Bloomer has said it is still a matter of “wait and see” as hopes of finding him and his wife alive after the superyacht tragedy in Sicily fade.
Six people, including Mr Bloomer, his wife Judy, British tech magnate Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, remain missing after the £30million Bayesian superyacht capsized early yesterday morning.
Rescuers are now frantically searching for trapped survivors, warning that the next 24 hours are “critical” if there is any hope of finding anyone alive. There is a small chance that an air pocket may still be trapped in the wreckage.
Jeremy Bloomer said his family is “doing the best they can” and that he has not received any new updates on the search. He also said divers are having trouble getting to the wreck of the boat.
He told the BBC the situation was “terrible” and “something you could never imagine”.
Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer (pictured left) has yet to be found
Mr Bloomer’s wife, Judy, was also on board the £30million Bayesian superyacht and has still not been found
The superyacht was moored off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo, when it was hit by a tornado over the sea, also known as a waterspout
Rescue workers review the Bayesian’s plans as they organize a search for six people still missing after the superyacht sank
He added: ‘It’s a slow process and it will take time, so there may be air pockets, but we don’t know.
He was my elder [brother] with half an hour. So it means a lot when you lose a twin brother. We’ll have to wait and see, so fingers crossed.
“I’m just numb, just numb. That’s it, you don’t know what to think and you can’t believe it happened.”
Residents of Knockholt in Kent, where Bloomer and his wife used to spend their weekends in a £5million mansion on the edge of the picturesque village, also said they were shocked by the news.
Harry Osenton, who ran the local pub The Three Horseshoes where the couple occasionally appeared, said: “It’s quite a shock. I remember him [Mr Bloomer] came here occasionally with his family. I don’t think he lived in the village permanently, but was here at the beginning of the summer.’
Neighbours of the couple’s large country home, which has a separate cottage on the extensive grounds, also reacted with shock.
They said: ‘We’ve been following the news and we saw Johnathan’s name. He used the place mainly at the weekends. I think it was his country house and he lived in London most of the time.’
Others in the village said they had been following developments surrounding the tragedy but did not know Mr Bloomer.
“I feel terribly sorry for his family,” said one resident who asked not to be named. “I can’t imagine what they’re going through.”
Mr Bloomer, 70, was chairman of the international arm of US banking giant Morgan Stanley. His country home was a children’s home from 1954 to 1965.
Search teams in Sicily report that the boat he and his wife were on is stranded on the seabed 50 meters below the surface. The depth is so deep that dive teams can only go down for 10 minutes at a time because their work is hampered by furniture blocking the entrance.
An expert claimed the ship, which is almost completely intact despite not being “anchored in a safe place” before it sank, could have trapped air bubbles inside the vessel that could have kept survivors alive after the “unprecedented” disaster.
There have been cases in the past of people surviving underwater for days in such conditions, but divers have warned they are prepared to find bodies rather than living, breathing survivors.
One person has been confirmed dead after the £30million superyacht was hit by a terrifying waterspout at around 5am on Monday morning, with the ship’s captain making an emotional statement from his hospital bed that he ‘didn’t see it coming’.
According to nautical experts, the ship is believed to have sunk after its mast, one of the world’s tallest at 75 metres, snapped and capsized during the horrific incident, causing the hull to become larger than the ‘downward angle’.
Divers attempting to board the superyacht were hampered by furniture blocking the entrances and exits.
CCTV captured the final moments of the Bayesian superyacht before it disappeared beneath the waves during a violent storm on Monday morning
British tech magnate Mike Lynch is still missing. His wife Angela Bacares (right) was among 15 people rescued from the yacht
Teams from the Italian Coast Guard Command and firefighters are carrying out search and rescue operations
According to those responsible for the operation, the divers are having difficulty reaching the cabins where there may be survivors and are having to drill their way into the lounge.
Luca Cari, head of emergency communications for Italy’s fire and rescue service, said divers could not see anything inside the yacht from outside and had only been able to inspect the bridge deck, the space from which the captain navigates.
Describing the challenges faced by the divers, she told local news agency Ansa: “They can stay underwater for a maximum of 12 minutes, two of which are needed to go up and down. So the actual time to carry out the search is 10 minutes per dive.”
According to rescuers, there are no bodies on the yacht’s bridge that they can see. Divers are now working to enter the lounge area.
The boat rests on its starboard (right) side on the seabed, 164 feet below the waves, and initial attempts by dive teams to move furniture that was obstructing their access to the cabins below were unsuccessful, Inspector Tilotta said.
Rescuers are still hoping that, against all odds, survivors will be found in trapped air pockets, but Inspector Tilotta admitted that “it is a race against time and the quality of oxygen will be poor”.