What do we know about the sinking of a luxury yacht off the coast of Sicily and its occupants?

PORTICELLE – Cave divers, working in 12-minute shifts underwater, were searching Tuesday for six missing passengers and crew, including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, believed to be in the submerged wreckage of a luxury yacht that was hit by a powerful storm and quickly sank off the coast of Sicily.

The yacht, named Bayesian, was carrying a crew of 10 and 12 passengers when it suddenly sank near the Mediterranean island that is part of Italy around 4 a.m. Monday. One body was recovered and 15 people survived.

Firefighters said the six people believed to have remained in the hull of the sailboat will be considered missing until they are located in the wreckage.

Here's what we know so far about the sinking and those on board.

What happened?

Italian civil protection officials believe a sudden, violent storm that hit the coast of Sicily in the early hours of Monday caused a waterspout at the exact spot where the 56-metre (184-foot) British-flagged Bayesian was moored.

Karsten Borner, the captain of another yacht moored nearby, said he saw the Bayesian during the storm, but when the severe weather passed it had disappeared and he saw only a red flare lighting up the night sky, ANSA and the Giornale di Sicilia newspaper reported.

Borner and a crew member boarded their boat and found a lifeboat carrying 15 people, some of them injured. They rescued them aboard their yacht and alerted the coast guard.

Salvage authorities said the wreck was lying at a depth of 50 metres (163 feet), about half a mile off the picturesque fishing village of Porticello.

Who was on board?

Among the missing is Mike Lynch, 59, sometimes called Britain's Bill Gates. Lynch was acquitted in June of all charges in a U.S. fraud trial related to the sale of his software company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in 2011 for $11 billion.

Lynch still faces a potentially huge bill from a civil case in London that HP largely won in 2022. Damages have not been determined in that case, but HP is seeking $4 billion. Lynch made more than $800 million from the sale of Autonomy.

A Cambridge-educated mathematician, Lynch rose to prominence running Autonomy, a search engine that can analyze emails and other internal business documents to help companies find vital information faster.

His 18-year-old daughter Hannah Lynch is reportedly among the missing. His wife, Angela Bacares, and 14 others survived.

Among those still missing Tuesday, according to the civil protection agency, were one of Lynch's U.S. attorneys, Christopher Morvillo of Clifford Chance, and Morvillo's wife, Neda. Morvillo was considered an elite defense attorney and also served as a federal prosecutor in New York after 9/11.

Also absent were Jonathan Bloomer, non-executive chairman of Morgan Stanley International, and his wife Judy. He is the former chairman of Autonomy's audit committee and testified for the defense at Lynch's trial.

Bloomer was also chairman of the Hiscox Group, an insurer operating in the Lloyd's of London market.

“We are deeply shocked and saddened by this tragic event,” Hiscox CEO Aki Hussain said in a statement. “Our thoughts are with all those affected, particularly our chairman, Jonathan Bloomer, and his wife Judy, who are among the missing, and their families as we await further information on this terrible situation.”

Among the survivors was Charlotte Golunski, who said she momentarily lost her one-year-old daughter Sofia in the water but later managed to grab her and hold her above the waves until a lifeboat inflated and they were both rescued, Italian news agency ANSA reported. The father, identified by ANSA as James Emslie, also survived.

The Dutch Foreign Ministry said one Dutch man had survived. The ministry, citing confidentiality, did not reveal his identity.

A body was found on Monday, identified as that of the captain.

What is Bayesian?

The Bayesian was a luxury yacht built in 2008 by the Italian company Perini Nav. It was known for its single 75-meter (246-foot) aluminum mast, one of the tallest in the world. Online charter sites listed it for rent for up to 195,000 euros (about $215,000) per week.

The registered owner is Revtom Ltd., based in the Isle of Man, according to the online maritime database Equasis. Lynch's wife is listed as the sole owner of Revtom, according to the Isle of Man company registration documents.

The yacht's name is an apparent reference to “Bayesian inference,” one of the two main approaches to statistical machine learning and the one used by Autonomy.

What is a waterspout?

Waterspouts are tornadoes that form over water and can occur when a storm moves over warm water.

According to the U.S. National Ocean Service, there are two types of waterspouts: fair-weather and tornado-like.

Tornado waterspouts “have the same characteristics as a terrestrial tornado. They are associated with severe thunderstorms and are often accompanied by high winds and waves, large hail and frequent dangerous lightning,” the service says on its website.

While scientists have not attributed this specific event to climate change, average monthly temperatures at the Earth's surface have been at record highs for months. Warmer air can hold more moisture, increasing the risk of more severe storms.

Sicily has experienced intense heat this summer, and the United Nations Climate Change Panel notes that the Mediterranean is particularly vulnerable to climate change, with warming rates about 20% higher than the global average.

What happens next?

As the search for the missing continues, authorities have already begun trying to piece together exactly what happened.

The prosecutor's office in the Sicilian city of Termini Imerese has opened an investigation, as is customary in such incidents, even when no suspects are identified. So far, it has not made any public comment.

The UK's marine accident investigation branch said four of its inspectors were deployed to Palermo.

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Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands.