The Italian prosecutor’s office has launched an official investigation against James Catfield, the captain of the yacht “Bayesian”, which belonged to the British billionaire Mike Lynch, and sank last week off the coast of Sicily, when six other people died along with the owner, Italian media reported today.
Analysts state that the initiation of an investigation in Italy does not mean guilt, and that an indictment will follow.
According to the newspapers “La Republika” and “Corriere de la Sera” Catfield (51), who is from New Zealand, is being investigated for manslaughter and shipwreck.
An official from the state prosecutor’s office in Termini Imerese, Ambrogio Cartozio, said over the weekend that despite the storm in which the yacht found itself, it is possible that offenses such as multiple manslaughter and causing a shipwreck were committed.
According to maritime laws, the captain bears full responsibility for the ship and its crew, as well as the safety of all passengers.
Seven people, including Mike Lynch, died when the yacht “Bayesian” sank during a storm off the coast of Porticello, not far from Palermo.
Fifteen people survived the shipwreck, including Lynch’s wife and the ship’s captain.
The first information says that the yacht, 56 meters long, was hit by a strong storm. Among the missing are Neda Morvillo, an American jewelry designer and her husband, attorney Chris Morvillo, Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy Bloomer. All of them were guests of British technology entrepreneur Mike Lynch, who, along with his 18-year-old daughter Hannah Lynch, is among the six missing persons.
His wife, who owns the yacht, survived the accident. Fifty-nine-year-old Lynch built the largest software company in Great Britain, Autonomy, which made him famous as the British Bill Gates.
“The sea surface temperature around Sicily was around 30 degrees Celsius, which is almost three degrees above normal. We cannot say that all of this is a consequence of global warming, but we can say it has an intensifying effect,” meteorologist Luca Mercalli told Reuters.
While the search for the missing continues, at the same time preparations are being made for an extensive investigation into what could have caused the sinking of the luxury yacht. Among the questions that will need to be answered is whether the crew closed the hatches to the vessel before the storm hit. Investigators will check whether appropriate measures have been taken in light of severe weather forecasts.
Storms and heavy rain have lashed Italy in recent days, after weeks of heatwaves have warmed sea temperatures to record highs, increasing the risk of extreme weather.
Italian Coast Guard spokesman Vincenzo Zagarola told PA that the assumption is that the passengers did not have time to get out of the ship because it capsized and sank very quickly. The statements of the divers who tried to enter the ship confirm this because, as they said, the yacht is practically intact, and is lying on its side on the seabed.
Access to the interior cabins is difficult, writes the BBC. Due to the furniture that blocked access to the cabins, the divers were forced to reach them through the window. Also, time does not help the divers, because in addition to the time needed to dive to the wreck and resurface, they only have 10 minutes to search the ship, Forbes writes.
