Bodies onboard sunken Bayesian wreck ‘found on opposite side of boat’ showing guests made tragic attempt to escape
THE SIX people found dead onboard the sunken Bayesian desperately tried to escape as the boat filled with water, officials have revealed.
Rescue divers spent five days scouring the wreck of the boat after it plunged some 164ft feet to the bottom of the sea.
The £14million yacht capsized and plunged under the surface after its 246ft tall mast was hit by a tornado-like cloud of air known as a waterspout.
Some 15 of the 22 onboard were rescued, 11 of them scrambling onto an inflatable life raft that sprung up on the deck.
The yacht’s chef – Recaldo Thomas – was the first to be found dead near the boat on Monday.
A rescue mission was launched for the remaining six, including Brit tycoon Mike Lynch and his daughter Hannah alongside two married couples.
Today they recovered the final person who drowned on the yacht – 18-year-old Hannah – with heartbreaking tributes rolling in.
Divers said the remaining six trapped on the Bayesian had fled their cabins on the right – or starboard – side.
They tried to climb to safety by heading for the left – port side – as the boat tilted over, where they were later found.
Officials believe the discovery of the missing six on the port side showed how they tragically tried to escape as the water poured in, according to Italian outlet Corriere.
A source working in the investigation told the paper: “We found them all on that side.
“We had maps with the layout of the cabins and the positions of the guests, and that’s not where we recovered them.”
It comes as the final minutes of what happened onboard the Bayesian were revealed by Automatic Identification System (AIS) data from the ship’s black-box equivalent.
An AIS tracking unit sends information from onboard boats to coastal stations, alerting officials to movement and distress.
As part of a probe into just how the luxury 184ft yacht toppled and plunged to the bottom of the sea, killing seven people, cops are analysing the data.
It revealed that at 3.50am on Monday the Bayesian began to shake “dangerously” during a fierce storm, Corriere reports.
It comes as…
- Brit teen Hannah Lynch was found on the sunken boat on Friday as her family paid tribute
- Five bodies were recovered from the yacht wreck on Wednesday and Thursday including Brit tycoon Mike Lynch
- The CEO of the firm that produced the Bayesian said the boat is ‘unsinkable’ and pointed to human error
- Captain James Cutfield was quizzed for two hours by cops and remains at the centre of a probe
- Experts believe the yacht’s ‘tallest mast in the world‘ may have contributed to the disaster after a freak ‘Black Swan’ weather event struck
- Pictures showed the tiny raft that saved up to 15 people
- Frantic text messages from the survivors revealed the chaos
Just minutes later at 3.59am the boat’s anchor gave way, with a source saying the data showed there was “no anchor left to hold”.
After the ferocious weather ripped away the boat’s mooring it was dragged some 358 metres through the water.
By 4am it had began to take on water and was plunged into a blackout, indicating that the waves had reached its generator or even engine room.
At 4.05am the Bayesian fully disappeared underneath the waves.
An emergency GPS signal was finally emitted at 4.06am to the coastguard station in Bari, a city nearby, alerting them that the vessel had sunk.
Giovanni Costantino, CEO of Italian Sea Group which owns Bayesian-maker Perini Navi shipyard, has blamed human error for the tragedy.
Mr Constantino also disputed claims the tornado had not been forecast and came as a shock and said it was “widely predicted”.