UK tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch among missing in Sicily yacht sinking | Italy

The British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch was lacking on Monday night after a superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily throughout a violent storm.

The British-flagged Bayesian, a 56-metre sailboat, was carrying 22 individuals and was anchored simply off shore close to the port of Porticello when it was hit by a twister within the early hours, the Italian coastguard mentioned in an announcement.

One man, understood to be the vessel’s chef, was confirmed useless and 6 others, together with Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, remained unaccounted for on Monday night. The coastguard mentioned the lacking had British, American and Canadian nationalities.

Fifteen individuals had been rescued, together with Lynch’s spouse, Angela Bacares, who owned the boat, and a one-year-old lady who was saved by her mom.

A spokesperson for Lynch declined to remark.

A spokesperson for the UK Overseas, Commonwealth and Growth Workplace mentioned: “We’re offering consular help to a variety of British nationals and their households following an incident in Sicily, and are in touch with the native authorities.”

Lynch co-founded Autonomy, a software program agency that turned one of many shining lights of the UK tech scene, within the mid-90s.

As soon as described as Britain’s Invoice Gates, Lynch spent a lot of the final decade in courtroom defending his title in opposition to allegations of fraud associated to the sale of Autonomy to the US tech firm Hewlett-Packard for $11bn.

The 59-year-old was acquitted by a jury in San Francisco in June, after he had spent greater than a 12 months dwelling in impact underneath home arrest.

Upon his acquittal, he instructed reporters: “I’m trying ahead to returning to the UK and getting again to what I like most: my household and innovating in my discipline.”

He was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for companies to enterprise in 2006, and appointed in 2011 to the science and know-how council of the then prime minister, David Cameron. He was elected as a fellow to the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2008 and the Royal Society in 2014.

The Italian coastguard mentioned: “This morning at about 5am, following a violent storm, a 56-metre yacht referred to as Bayesian flying the British flag sank close to Porticello.”

The boat had a crew of 10 individuals and 12 passengers, it added.

Rescue divers try to achieve the hull, which sank to roughly 49 metres. The general public prosecutor’s workplace in Termini Imerese is investigating the incident.

Eight of these rescued, together with the one-year-old, had been transferred to hospitals and had been all in a steady situation.

Domenico Cipolla, a chief doctor on the Di Cristina hospital in Palermo the place the one-year-old lady and her mom had been admitted, mentioned: “The newborn is doing effectively. The mom can also be in good situation, albeit with some minor abrasions. The daddy may even be discharged from the hospital quickly.

“They’ve mentioned that almost all of them had been colleagues who labored for Lynch. They’re deeply traumatised. As time passes, they realise increasingly that this morning they misplaced many buddies.”

The mom of the one-year-old youngster, Charlotte Golunski, 36, reportedly mentioned she stored her daughter afloat by protecting her arms outstretched upwards to stop her from drowning.

“It was all darkish,” she mentioned, in keeping with Italian media. “Within the water, I couldn’t preserve my eyes open. I used to be screaming for assist, however all I might hear round me had been the screams of others.”

She instructed Italian media that the passengers – all colleagues of Lynch’s – had travelled to the Aeolian Islands, Milazzo and Cefalù.

The coastguard mentioned the yacht was constructed by the Italian shipbuilder Perini in 2008. The posh vessel has an aluminium hull, can attain a most velocity of 15 knots and might carry 12 friends and a crew of as much as 10, in keeping with on-line specialist yacht websites.

The boat left the Sicilian port of Milazzo on 14 August and was final tracked east of Palermo on Sunday night, with a navigation standing of “at anchor”, in keeping with the monitoring app VesselFinder.

Experiences in native media mentioned a waterspout had hit the vessel. A waterspout, which roughly resembles a mini-tornado, is a column that descends from a cloud to type a rotating combination of wind and water over a physique of water.

Some fishers reported recognizing a small twister off the coast at about 3.55am. Shortly after, they witnessed a misery flare allegedly launched from the vessel. The fishers approached however recounted seeing solely “scattered stays of the sailboat floating within the water”.

Storms and heavy rainfall have swept by means of Italy in latest days, with floods and landslides inflicting main injury within the north of the nation after weeks of scorching warmth.

The captain of a close-by boat mentioned that when the winds surged, he had turned the engine on to maintain management of his vessel and keep away from a collision with the Bayesian, which had been anchored alongside him.

“We managed to maintain the ship in place and after the storm was over, we observed that the ship behind us was gone,” Karsten Borner mentioned. The opposite boat “went flat on the water, after which down”, he added.

He mentioned his crew then discovered a few of the survivors on a life raft – together with three who had been severely injured, and a child lady and her mom – and took them onboard earlier than the coastguard picked them up.