Monday, August 26, 2024 - The captain of the Bayesian superyacht is being investigated for 'manslaughter and shipwreck' after the tragedy left seven dead including British tech millionaire Mike Lynch and his daughter.
James Cutfield, 51, from New Zealand, is
being investigated for manslaughter and shipwreck, La Repubblica and
Corriere della Sera said.
Magistrates reportedly spoke to Cutfield on Sunday for the
second time in a week, questioning him for more than two hours.
Prosecutors may also investigate a crew member who was
on duty when the storm hit and survived the disaster, according to reports.
The 184ft Bayesian was carrying 22 people when it
capsized and sank last Monday within minutes of being hit by a storm while
anchored off northern Sicily.
Brit tech tycoon Mike Lynch and four others were found dead
in the first cabin of the luxury yacht’s left side.
Mr Lynch's 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, was found in the
third cabin after it sank stern-first before rolling on to its right on the
seabed. The yacht’s chef also died.
Fifteen of the 22 on board, including Mr Lynch’s
wife Angela Bacares, 57, escaped on a life raft.
Prosecutors said the victims had attempted to scramble
to one side of the doomed £30million, 184ft vessel in a desperate battle
to reach air pockets after it went down in a storm off Sicily.
Chief Prosecutor Ambrogio Cartosio said the victims would
have been asleep when the freak weather struck at around 5 am local
time on Monday last week, leaving them unable to escape.
Being placed
under investigation in Italy does not imply guilt - and
does not mean formal charges will necessarily follow.
Maritime law gives a captain full responsibility
for the ship and the crew, as well as the safety of all aboard.
In a press conference on Saturday, Mr Cartosio said there may have been “behaviours that were not perfectly in order with regard to the responsibility everybody had”.
He added: “There could be in fact the question of homicide.
But this is the beginning of the inquiry, we cannot exclude anything at all.”
He said one line of inquiry was whether the crew attempted
to raise the alarm with passengers before getting on the lifeboat and escaping.
He vowed to “discover how much they (the crew) knew and to
what extent all the people (passengers) were warned.”
He said: “We will establish each element’s (crew)
responsibility. For me, it is probable that offences were committed — that it
could be a case of manslaughter.”
He said Captain Cutfield had been “extremely
cooperative” during questioning and will be quizzed further.
Lead prosecutor Raffaele Cammarano said Italy’s Air Force
found the boat was sunk by a downburst which descended from a thunderstorm.
He said there were forecasts of strong winds and a storm
alert but good visibility and no suggestion of a tornado.
He added: “Given the conditions were such, there wasn’t
anything to suggest there could be an extreme situation.
“There are vessels that can monitor these events and one
would have thought the captain had taken precautions.”
He said one person was on watch in the cockpit at the time
of the accident.
Bentivoglio Fiandra, chief of Palermo’s fire brigade and
part of the rescue, said the victims “were trying to hide in the
cabins on the left-hand side” where the last air pockets remained.
Vincenzo Nardoni, inspector at the Department of Fire
Fighters’ Divers in Naples, said: “Inside it was a very confusing place, with
wardrobes and furniture whirling all around us, and lots of mirrors reflecting
back our lights at us.
“The bodies were all wedged in tight spots, with furniture
on top or beside them. They were all stuck there.”
Giovanni Costantino, CEO of The Italian Sea Group, which
manufactured Perini Navi shipyard vessel Bayesian, accused the crew of failing
to “close the doors and hatches” and insisted the boat should have been
“unsinkable”.
Mr Costantino recently told The Sun: "Modern sailing
ships, especially high-tech ones like the Perini, are designed to be extremely
safe and stable.
“Even in very critical conditions, if procedures are
followed, a sailing yacht like the Bayesian will return to an upright position.
"If the ship takes on water, this stability is
compromised ... What is certain is that the ship took on hundreds of thousands
of litres of water."
Authorities now face a delicate task in extracting the wreck from the depths of the sea - intact - so that it can be properly probed.
Expert diver Bertrand Sciboz said it would be a "very
special operation".
He told BBC on Saturday: “They’ll have to salvage the wreck
intact to then send it back to authorities and police.
“They will need to salvage the boat intact but I suppose
they will have to take off the mast before.
“First, put the boat on its keel and then take off the
mast."
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