Investigators are considering potential manslaughter as they try to find out what caused the Bayesian superyacht to sink, killing seven people, an Italian prosecutor has said.
Prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio said “behaviours that were not perfectly in order” may have been behind the number of deaths off the coast of Sicily at a news conference on Saturday.
Investigators will focus on “the extent all the people [on board] were warned” of safety procedures, he said.
Responsibility could lie with “all members of the crew… the manufacturers… [or those who were] not surveying or supervising the ship”.
But all lines of inquiry are being considered, including the role of the extreme weather that struck the area, he added.
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Bayesian superyacht before it capsized. Pic:Danny Wheelz
Bodies found inside two cabins
Firefighter Bentivoglio Fiandra revealed that when the emergency call came in at 4.38am on 19 August, the yacht had already sunk and was on its right-hand side around 50m underwater.
As a result those who died “were trying to hide in the cabins on the left-hand side” of the vessel, he said. Alternatively, they could have been asleep, so failed to escape.
Tributes pour in for youngest victim; superyacht latest
Divers found the body of the on-board chef near the vessel first, he added.
Then, a rotating team of rescuers discovered five others inside the yacht – in the first cabin on the left-hand side – and the final one in the third on that side.
Investigators plan to retrieve the shipwreck from the seabed to be able to establish the circumstances in which the yacht capsized, the prosecutor said on Saturday, with the owners taking responsibility for the cost.
Details of distressing rescue mission revealed
For days we have been waiting to hear from those on the frontline of this rescue mission.
And today finally, we did. Speaking for an hour-and-a-half to the surprise of local journalists who couldn’t believe what they were hearing alongside the world’s press.
First-hand accounts of the gruelling, distressing and meticulous work that led to the discovery of the bodies of those missing on board the Bayesian.
Mr Cartosio said he had felt the need to conduct a press conference given the international interest in the event.
Flanking the head public prosecutor were representatives from the fire and rescue service and the members of the coastguard.
Some 11 highly specialised divers spent a total of 4,470 minutes underwater searching the vessels across five days.
By the end, there was little visibility in the water but they persevered and by lunchtime on Friday they had recovered the final missing person.
The discoveries of the bodies of all those onboard was difficult for divers despite their years of experience.
The foyer of the courthouse in Termini Imerese – a town just outside the Sicilian capital and some 10 miles from the scene of the tragedy – was packed.
Some 100 journalists on white plastic chairs scribbling away as details about the mission and the subsequent investigation were revealed for the first time.
The world’s media heard the scope of the investigation was broad and that the aim of it was to find who is responsible.
Charges relating to shipwreck and manslaughter are being considered but nothing is being ruled out.
Read moreWho was on superyacht that sank off Sicily?What we know about disaster
So far there is no indication it was anchored in a bad position, he added.
Water samples have been taken from near the wreckage and so far there is no eence of dangerous hydrocarbons coming from the yacht, the news conference was told.
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Hannah and Mike Lynch
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Jonathan and Judy Bloomer
Autopsies not carried out yet
Autopsies have not yet been carried out on the victims, who were retrieved from the wreckage between Monday and Friday.
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, 59, was among the seven who died after the yacht got into difficulty and sank as little as 60 seconds in the early hours.
The others included Morgan Stanley chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy, American lawyer Chris Morvillo, his wife Neda, and the yacht’s on-board chef Reclado Thomas.
Mr Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah was the final body divers recovered on Friday. Her mother and his wife Angela Bacares survived the disaster. Their other daughter Esme was not on board and paid tribute to her sister in a family-released statement.
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Rescuers bring the final body to shore in Porticello, Sicily on Friday. Pic: Reuters
The family is believed to have organised the trip to celebrate the end of Mr Lynch’s legal troubles.
In July he was cleared of 15 US fraud charges in a case that lasted 12 years and focused on the sale of his company Autonomy to US firm Hewlett Packard in 2011.
Prosecutors claimed he deliberately overstated the value of the firm he founded in 1996. Mr Lynch always denied wrongdoing.
