Divers are continuing to hunt for British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and five others after his superyacht sank in raging seas off Sicily - as a hero mother told how she fought to save her one-year-old baby's life after they were thrown overboard.
Mr Lynch, 59, remains missing alongside five other tourists, including three Brits and two Americans, just weeks after he spoke of his'second life' after being cleared of controversial fraud charges in the US.
The billionaire - whose wife,Angela Bacares, 57, was among 15 people rescued -was acquitted of all charges in a long-running legal dispute relating to the £8.3billion sale of his firm Autonomy to US company Hewlett-Packard 13 years ago.
Mr Lynch had spoken of his 'indescribable' relief at being acquitted and joy at returning to Britain, and texted one friend saying it was 'so wonderful to be home'. He has also told of his delight at being able to spend time with his two daughters, 21 and 18, and their six dogs.
Charlotte Golunski, 36, and her young daughter Sofia were two of 22 people aboard the Bayesian when it was battered in a storm before sinking a few hundred metres from the port of Porticello, near Palermo, at about 4:30am this morning.
Speaking to the Italian press after being rescued alongside her daughter, she told of the horror she went through as her child slipped from her arms.
Charlotte Golunski, 36, and her young daughter Sofia were two of 22 people aboard the superyacht when it was battered in a storm before sinking a few hundred metres from the port of Porticello
Speaking to Italian press after their rescue, Charlotte explained the horror she experienced as her child slipped from her arms when they went overboard
Mike Lynch on his Suffolk farm in 2021 when he was fighting extradition to the USA
Lynch's wife Angela Bacares (right) was among the fifteen people who were rescued from the yacht
Mr Lynch (second left) is seen in the early days of his techology firm Autonomy in Cambridge
'For two seconds I lost my baby in the sea, then I immediately hugged her again amid the fury of the waves,' MsGolunski said.
'I held her afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning,' she added.
'It was all dark. In the water I couldn't keep my eyes open. I screamed for help but all I could hear around me was the screams of others.'
Charlotte, who is now in Palermo's Children's Hospital with her baby receiving treatment for a minor shoulder injury, described the ordeal as 'terrible' and detailed how 'in a few minutes the boat was hit by a very strong wind and sank shortly after... (We were) terrified by the thunder, the lightning, the waves that made our boat lurch.'
She added that her family had survived because they were on the deck when the ship began to sink, rather than trapped in the cabins below.
Mr Lynch had spoken of his relief at returning from America following his nightmare legal ordeal.
Speaking in his first newspaper interview, he told The Times: 'I'd had to say goodbye to everything and everyone, because I didn't know if I'd ever be coming back.'
Mr Lynch responded to his acquittal by revealing he had feared dying in prison if found guilty - saying thatmedical issues meant he felt it would have been 'difficult to survive' time behind bars.
He added: 'If this had gone the wrong way, it would have been the end of my life as I have known it in any sense.
'It's bizarre, but now you have a second life - the question is, what do you want to do with it?'
What was tech firm Autonomy?
Founded in Cambridge in 1996, Autonomy developed technology which could help companies sort out their data, like emails or intranet pages, using 'adaptive techniques'.
During the dot com bubble, shares traded for as much as £30, before HP came calling for $11bn in 2011.
Mr Lynch personally made more than £500m from its sale to Hewlett-Packard, only for HP to later wrote down three-quarters of the value of Autonomy only a year after buying it.
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A member of staff who worked at Mr Lynch's Chelsea home said the businessman 'clearly had a lot of pride' in his yacht, the Bayesian.
'He had a miniature model of it and photos of it on the water in the hallway of his Chelsea home,' they said. 'When I asked him about he told me about it's size and how much his family loved spending time on it.'
Born inIlford, Essex, as the son of an Irish fireman and a nurse, Mr Lynch won a scholarship toBancroft's School, a private day school in northeast London, and later read natural sciences at Cambridge.
At university he developed his fascination with technology, completing a doctorate and holding aresearch fellowship in adaptive pattern recognition.
In 1991, he set up Cambridge Neurodynamics, which specialised in computer-based finger print recognition for the police.
Five years later he founded data analysis company Autonomy, which became one of Britain's most successful start-ups.
His rise to fame and fortune had been celebrated as a major and pioneering British success story and the married father of two daughters was awarded an OBE in 2006 for services to enterprise.
That same year, he was appointed to the board of the BBC - and was later elected to then-prime minister David Cameron's council for science and technology in 2011.
He advised Mr Cameron on subjects including 'the opportunities and risks of the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and the government's role in the regulation of these technologies'.
Tech tycoon and married father-of-two Mr Lynch is pictured here with his wife Angela
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch is understood to be among the British tourists who are missing after the the Bayesian superyacht sank
Mr Lynch at Autonomy's headquarters at Cambridge Business Park in 2000
The British-flagged Bayesianis thought to have arrived in Porticello after a stopping in Milazzo, around 100 miles up the coast towards the Italian mainland
A local Facebook group shared a picture of the yacht (left) at anchor last night. The vessel has been named as the Bayesian, and is said to sail under a British flag
Yet in March this year he found himself in a San Francisco courtroom to defend himself against fraud and conspiracy charges - and ultimately won his freedom.
The 59-year-old tycoon had spent much of the previous year living under house arrest with an electronic tag attached to his ankle.
Fighting his corner was a legal team led by Reid Weingarten, described as one of the US legal system's most successful white-collar defenders.
Mr Lynch had potentially faced up to 20 years in a US prison if found guilty of 16 counts of conspiracy, and securities and wire fraud, which he denied.
The charges related to a business deal that was hailed at the time as his crowning glory – the £8.6billion sale of his software and data company Autonomy to US computer giant Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
Mr Lynch personally made more than £500million from the deal, only for HP to laterwrote down three-quarters of the value of Autonomy only a year after buying it.
The US company fired Mr Lynch while accusing accusing him and other executives of having grossly inflated its size and profits during the sale.
He had previously lost a 2019 civil fraud case based on similar allegations that HP – now Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE) – brought in the UK, with London's High Court ruling in 2020 that HPE had 'substantially won' its case.
His separate three-year battle to avoid being extradited to face criminal charges culminated in Lynch going to the High Court to argue that American prosecutors were guilty of legal overreach which threatened UK sovereignty and its citizens.
His plea was rejected and in May last year he was flown to California, accompanied by the U.S. Marshals Service, still protesting his innocence.
And on June 6 this year he was acquitted of fraud by a jury in San Francisco, while former Autonomy finance executive Stephen Chamberlain, who faced the same charges, was also acquitted on all counts.
Earlier this month he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that being rich had helped him secure his acquittal, saying: 'You shouldn't need to have funds to protect yourself as a British citizen.
'The reason I'm sitting here, let's be honest, is not only because I was innocent but because I had enough money not to be swept away by a process that's set up to sweep you away.'
Charlotte, who is now in Palermo's Children's Hospital with her baby receiving treatment for a minor shoulder injury, described the ordeal as 'terrible'
A frantic search is underway at the site of the shipwreck after the Bayesian sank this morning
The search area this morning off the coast of Porticello, Sicily
Divers from the fire service have been supporting search and rescue efforts
Nautical maps show the last known location of the Bayesian just after 2am local time, when it was at anchor
Harrowing details of this morning's events are emerging as divers continue their desperate search for six missing tourists in the wreck of the superyacht, 160ft underwater off the coast of Sicily.
Tragically, the body of a man - believed to be a Canadian national who was working as the boat's chef - was found floating alongside the vessel earlier today.
There are fears that those who are still missing became trapped in their cabins, with divers earlier reporting that they saw 'bodies through the portholes' of the yacht, according to Italian media.
The luxury vessel was docked off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo, early this morning when a freak storm hit the area, with witnesses describing how a 'whirlwind' hit, wrecking the boat and causing it to rapidly disappear beneath the waves.
Fifteen of the 22 people on board, including one-year-oldSofia and her parents, were saved by a nearby vessel after they miraculouslymanaged to inflate a lifeboat and clamber aboard.
The Sir Robert BP, a Dutch ship which had been anchored close to the Bayesian, sailed in to the rescue.
Karsten Borner, the captain of the boat, has described how his vessel was battered by strong gusts, with his team working to stabilise it and manoeuvre it to avoid hittingthe Bayesian nearby.
'We managed to keep the ship in position, and after the storm was over, we noticed that the ship behind us was gone,' he said.
Once the storm subsided, Borner said he and his first mate noticed a flare in the water, and made their way towards it.
There they found the lifeboat with those who had escaped inside, including the one-year-old baby.
The passengers on board were mainly British, according to reports, while citizens from New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Canada, the US and two dual British and French nationals were also said to be on board.
The group are reported to have been tourists on holiday in Sicily, and it is feared that those missing may have been trapped inside their cabins.
The vessel was still at anchor near the port when the tornado struck, witnesses told Italian news agency ANSA.
With the anchor still down, the storm broke the mast, causing the vessel to lose its balance and capsize, according to reports.
The Italian Coastguard confirmed that a nearby boat offered assistance to people before emergency services arrived.
The group were staying on the vessel, which has been named as the Bayesian - a luxury yacht which sails under the British flag
The Sir Robert BP, a Dutch sailing ship which had been anchored nearby the Bayesian, is believed to have rescued some of those on board (file image)
Mr Lynch in his younger years before he became one of Britain's most high profile entrepreneurs
The executive - pictured in London in 2014 - became one of Britain's best known technology entrepreneurs
Mr Lynch pictured leaving the Rolls Building in London in 2011
A helicopter, coastguard vessels and firefighters have since been deployed to search the scene of the wreck for those who are still missing.
Expert divers have already reached thehull, 49 metres below the water and about half a mile from the coast, according to Italian media.
Nautical maps show the last known location of the Bayesian just after 2am local time, when it was at anchor.
The boat is thought to have arrived in Porticello after a stopping in Milazzo, around 100 miles up the coast towards the Italian mainland.
A local Facebook page shared a picture of the two yachts at anchor last night, just hours before the high winds hit.
'That boat was all lit up,' a man in Porticello told ANSA. 'At around 4.30 in the morning it was gone. A beautiful boat where there had been a party. A normal holiday spent happily at sea turned into a tragedy.
'The boat was not far from the port. It took very little to raise the anchor and head for the port. Evidently they were surprised by the storm that suddenly hit and they were unable to avoid sinking.'
Divers are scouring the wreckage of the superyacht, which is 160ft underwater off the coast of Sicily
Emergency response teams are seen at the harbour near where the boat sank this morning
Emergency and rescue services work near the scene where a sailboat sank in the early hours of Monday, off the coast of Porticello
A helicopter, coastguard vessels and firefighters have been deployed to search the scene
Fabio Cefalù, a fisherman who spotted the shipwrecked boat off the coast, said he called for help at 4.30 this morning.
'At about 3.55 we saw the whirlwind. After a quarter of an hour we saw a rocket 500 metres away from the dock,' he told Corriere.
'At about 4.35 we went out to sea to provide assistance, but we only saw the remains of the boat floating. There were no men in the sea.So we immediately called the port authority.'
The vessel can accommodate 12 passengers and 10 crewmembers.
Coast guards patrol boats and firefighters brought those who were rescued to shore, and the survivors will be interviewed by authorities in the coming hours.
None of the survivors are thought to be in a serious condition, with a few of them receiving treatment for minor injuries.
All those who were not injured are expected to speak to the Coast Guard today as investigators seek to understand what happened.
The ship they were staying on is managed by Camper and Nicholson's International, which says it is assisting in the search efforts.
The firm, which does not own the yacht, said in a statement that the boatencountered 'severe weather and subsequently sank'.
'Our priority is assisting with the ongoing search and providing all necessary support to the rescued passengers and crew,' a spokesperson said.
A spokesperson told the BBC that they are currently 'dealing with a situation onboard one of [their] managed vessels', but would not give any further details.
The 180ft yacht has a gross tonnage of 473 tons, and was built by the Perini Navi Viareggio shipyard in February 2008 before being refitted in 2020.
The deck area is 436 square metres and the six cabins occupy an area of 143 square metres.
It comprises of an aluminum hull, and is powered by two large engines, allowing it to cruise at 12 knots and reach a maximum speed of 15 knots.
The boat has the second tallest mast in the world and the largest aluminum mast of 75 metres.
Sicily is currently under a weather warning for wind, with video showing strong gusts battering the coast this morning.
CCTV footage from around 4am this morning shows a torrent of wind and rain slamming into Santa Nicolicchia - an area ofPorticello where Bayesian was anchored.
Video posted by Vigili del Fuoco shows the rescue operation on a stretch of sea near Palermo
Search and rescue teams are still scouring the scene, with six people missing and one confirmed dead
The high winds throw umbrellas, plant pots, tables and chairs flying within seconds of hitting, with the local restaurant who shared the footage saying: 'In a moment the hurricane took everything away!'
The owners of Baia Santa Nicolicchia said they were able to open later in the morning once the storm had passed, but added: 'We have no memory of anything like this in our area.'
Shadow Foreign Minister for Europe, Alicia Kearns, wrote on X: 'Desperately sorry to hear of the capsizing of the Bayesian - a heartbreaking incident.
'My thoughts are with all the families of those lost at sea, and those recovering following the rescue operation, I'm sure the foreign office will be providing consular support to British Nationals and their families.'
The Foreign Office said in a statement: 'We are providing consular support to a number of British nationals and their families following an incident in Sicily, and are in contact with the local authorities.'
