Four of the bodies recovered from Mike Lynch’s superyacht showed signs that they had been trapped inside air bubbles before suffocating to death, an Italian media report suggested.
La Repubblica, citing autopsy results, reported that four of the seven victims who died after British tech tycoon Mike Lynch’s superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily last month died of “atypical drowning.”
The autopsies found no water in their lungs, trachea, or stomach, which suggested that they ran out of oxygen while stuck inside air pockets in one of the yacht’s cabins, per the outlet.
Pathologists of the Institute of Forensic Medicine of Parlermo’s Polyclinic carried out the autopsies on the bodies of lawyer Chris Morvillo, his wife Neda, Morgan Stanley’s International chair Jonathan Bloomer, and his wife Judy on Monday and Tuesday, the report said.
Tiziana Lenzo, a press officer for Parlermo’s Polyclinic, told BI the hospital was not allowed to comment on the autopsy results due to investigative secrecy.
The 183-foot Bayesian superyacht sank on August 19 during stormy weather near Porticello, prompting the Italian Coast Guard to launch a search-and-rescue effort.
Fifteen out of 22 people on board survived, while seven — including Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter — were confirmed dead.
Matthew Schanck, chairman of the UK’s Maritime Search and Rescue Council, told BI last month, while the rescue efforts were still ongoing, that divers were likely searching for air pockets where survivors may be located.
Meanwhile, Nick Sloane, who worked on the Costa Concordia salvage operation, told Sky News at the time that divers had a “very small” window of time to try to locate anyone stuck inside, hopefully in “an air pocket.”
In the aftermath of the sinking, some have criticized the crew for their supposed shortcomings.
Giovanni Costantino, the CEO of the Italian Sea Group, which owns Perini Navi, the firm that built the Bayesian in 2008, blamed crew members for not following protocol and failing to prepare for the storm.
Costantino told the Financial Times that the yacht went down in 16 minutes and that it was “designed to be absolutely stable.”
Franco Romani, a nautical architect who was part of the team that designed the yacht, told La Stampa that the Bayesian was built to go to sea in “any weather” and that a side hatch left open could have let water enter the vessel, per Reuters.
During a press conference last month, investigators said five bodies had been discovered in the same cabin.
Italian prosecutors said they had opened a manslaughter investigation following the sinking.
The captain of the yacht, James Cutfield, and two Britons, engineer Tim Parker Eaton and crew member Matthew Griffiths, have been placed under investigation, per Sky News.
