Body of British tech tycoon Mike Lynch among five recovered from superyacht – as daughter, 18, remains unaccounted for

22 August 2024, 09:22 | Updated: 22 August 2024, 10:28

Five bodies recovered from the sunken Bayesian superyacht have now been formally identified – with British tech tycoon Mike Lynch among those recovered.

The British tech tycoon’s body was recovered by divers alongside four others after being found inside the sunken superyacht.

The remaining four bodies to be recovered have been formally identified as Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judith Bloomer, lawyer Christopher Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo.

Mr Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah Lynch, remains unaccounted for.

It brings the total death toll from the disaster to six.

Divers continued to search for the teenager off the coast of Sicily on Thursday, after recovering the fifth body from the vessel, which sunk at around 5am on Monday.

It comes as David Worsfold, a Liberal Democrat Councillor in Brentwood, who knew Mike Lynch during his school days, told LBC the tech tycoon was a “great guy” who “wanted people to have the same opportunities he had.”

“I’ve met many very, very wealthy people. Some of them think that they’ve left the rest of us behind and look down their noses at us,” he told LBC.

Councillor who knew Mike Lynch pays tribute to him

“Mike never ever came near anything like that. He was still the same Mike Lynch that he must have been at school. He was the same Mike Lynch as when he started Autonomy all the way through.”

“Mike was a great guy. We went to the same school, albeit 10 years apart. But Mike was a great supporter of the Foundation that raised money for scholarships for young for boys and girls to go to the school because he was a scholarship boy himself.

Read more: Sailing yachts like Mike Lynch’s are ‘unsinkable’, claims CEO of company that builds them

Read more: Super-yacht tragedy: Who is still missing and who has been rescued? What is known so far

He added: “He wanted people to have the same opportunities he had.”

Four of the bodies discovered aboard the vessel had been brought back to shore come nightfall on Wednesday.

A fifth was retrieved early on Thursday.

Six people were marked as missing after the boat was hit by a water spout off the coast in Sicily just after 5am on Monday – with Hannah Lynch still missing.

22 people were onboard the yacht when it sank on Monday, with the chef Recaldo Thomas the first body to be found earlier in the week.

The ship is resting at a depth of around 50m (163ft) off the coast of Porticello near Palermo, where it had been anchored during the tornado.

It comes as the CEO of the company that built the ship claimed sailing yachts like Mike Lynch’s are “unsinkable”.

Giovanni Constantino, CEO of the Italian Sea Group, told Italian media the storm that caused the sinking was expected.

He added that there were no flaws with the design and construction of the Bayesian, insinuating human error was to blame in recent interviews with international media.

Search to resume for remaining passenger missing after yacht sank off Sicily

Captain James Cutfield, 51, is a “well-respected” sailor and has worked on boats since he was a teen, his brother said.

Hopes are fading for the missing teenager as authorities formally identified the five bodies recovered.

It comes after Mr Cutfield, who is currently in hospital, spoke for the first time earlier in the week, telling local media of the abrupt nature of a water spout that caused the ship to sink.

“We just didn’t see it coming,” he said.