A prestigious London school is ‘in shock’ after former student Hannah Lynch went missing alongside her British tech billionaire father when their yacht sank.
A spokesperson for Hannah’s old school has said they are ‘incredibly shocked’ in a kind message to her family after it emerged she is among the missing after the luxury yacht sank in a tornado off the coast of Sicily.
The academically gifted pupil, who attended Latymer Upper school where school fees are £25,000 per year, had been a star student at the competitive secondary school.
The 18-year-old has won a number of prestigious school including outstanding academic achievement while in lower sixth form and the William C Smith award for poetry.
The school for 7-18 year olds said in a statement: ‘We are all incredibly shocked by the news that Hannah and her father are among those missing in this tragic incident and our thoughts are with their family and everyone involved as we await further updates.’
The West London private school – whose alumni includes Hugh Grant and Alan Rickman – was founded in 1624.
Hannah had just completed her A-Levels and gained a place to study English at Oxford before the tragedy when the huge Bayesian overturned during a severe thunderstorm on Monday morning.
It comes as rescuers face a ‘very complicated’ search for the six missing passengers on the superyacht owned by Hannah’s father, British billionaire Mike Lynch.
It comes as:
Hannah Lynch attended the prestigious Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith
The huge Bayesian overturned during a severe thunderstorm on Monday morning
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch (pictured) and his daughter are missing after his yacht sank
The school was founded in 1624 and charges £8,633 per term
The vessel – which had been carrying 10 crew members and 12 passengers – had been moored just 300 metres from the coast near Palermo when it was hit by a terrifying waterspout at around 5am, with the ship’s captain saying those on board were blindsided and ‘didn’t see it coming’.
Tornado-speed winds flipped the superyacht so quickly that people on board were left swimming for their lives with those who made it off stranded in the pitch black water as the storm raged around them.
One maritime expert has said suggested that despite potentially facing winds of up to 100mph as a result of the extremely rare phenomenon the boat should have been able to withstand the force of the gales, raising questions about how it ended up sinking.
Search teams have already found the body of one man, thought to be an onboard chef, and there are fears that more bodies will be found in the hull of the ship by specialist divers today, while some survivors – including the captain – remain in hospital.
Mr Lynch, once dubbed the British Bill Gates and worth an estimated £852million, had taken his family and friends on the ‘victory’ trip after being acquitted of fraud charges.
There are fears that more bodies will be found in the hull of the ship by specialist divers today
Tornado-speed winds flipped the superyacht so quickly that people on board were left swimming for their lives
Chairman of Morgan Stanley International, Jonathan Bloomer (pictured), and his wife are also missing
Lynch’s attorney Christopher Morvillo (pictured) and his wife Neda are also missing
However, the dream trip, hosted by the 59-year-old father-of-two from Suffolk who claimed he was living a ‘second life’ after almost a year under house arrest, turned into a nightmare and tragedy struck.
In an extraordinary twist, the sinking comes days after Stephen Chamberlain, an ex-colleague of Mr Lynch – who he had successfully fought the fraud case with – was fatally injured when he was hit by a car while running on Saturday morning.
Police have said there’s nothing to suggest anything suspicious in his death and no arrests have been made after the driver of a car stayed at the scene following the collision. Mr Chamberlain later died of his injuries.
Also among the missing are Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer and Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo who represented Mr Lynch in his recent legal battle, along with both of their wives.
During yesterday’s frantic search it was reported that bodies had been seen through the portholes in some of the cabins, although it is believed that divers have not been able to get inside the vessel due to furniture obstructing the way in.
Italian Coast Guard Command teams and firefighters are carrying out search and rescue
The superyacht was docked off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo, when a waterspout hit
Firefighter divers trained to work in tight spaces were flown in from Rome and Sardinia to aid in the operation yesterday, but in their first search below the surface they failed to gain access to the vessel.
Officials have said those on board the boat were in ‘the wrong place at the wrong time’, with hope already fading that anyone else will be found alive this morning.
The yacht sank as a fierce storm battered the area overnight, with local meteorologists warning that 30C temperatures – warmer than normal – had amplified the risk of an extreme weather event.
Survivors were dramatically rescued from the water in the aftermath including one woman who heroically saved a one-year-old British boy.
Mr Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, 57, who was among the rescued, recalls the boat suddenly ’tilted’ at around 4am, before glass began shattering.
One maritime expert has said that the sinking of the boat was ‘unprecedented’ and that a vessel the size of the Bayesian should not have been able to capsize in that weather.
Those involved in the rescue efforts have compared the incident to the ‘Costa Concordia disaster on a smaller scale’, adding that they would do ‘everything to recover the bodies’ amid worsening weather conditions.
It is believed the ship sank after its mast – one of tallest in the world at an enormous 246ft-high – snapped during the brutal incident and keeled over, taking the hull beyond the ‘down-flooding angle’, according to nautical experts.
Inspector Marco Tilotta, leading the Palermo Fire Brigade’s diving unit, has likened the grim search operation to the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster in 2012 which claimed the lives of 33 people.
Eerily, the specialist cave divers called in for the search and rescue operation found ‘virtually everything intact’ on board, with little sign of damage, and ‘no rips in the side, no signs of impact,’ he told MailOnline.
Over the next few hours and days, the accident investigators will have to work out how it was possible that the vessel sank while others were hardly affected and how come it was still intact.