A British tech entrepreneur named Mike Lynch is missing after his luxury superyacht, the Bayesian, sank off the coast of Sicily. An intense storm is believed to have capsized the 56-meter yacht anchored near Porticello early on August 19, leaving one person confirmed dead and six missing.
According to witnesses, a waterspout—basically a sea tornado—toppled the yacht, which was brought under by the weight of its mast, the tallest aluminum mast in the world. The fishermen who spotted the waterspout at around 3:55 AM say they saw a distress flair fired from roughly within the yacht’s location. By the time they got to it, they only found the yacht’s remains.
The Bayesian had been carrying 22 people, of which firefighters and the Italian Coast Guard rescued 15, including a 1-year-old whose mother had kept the baby safe by holding them over the water to save them from drowning. Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, was also among those rescued. All survivors have been transferred to local hospitals and are in stable condition.
Lynch, 59, dubbed “Britain’s Bill Gates,” was recently found not guilty of fraud charges in the US related to the $11 billion sale of his software company, Autonomy Corporation, to Hewlett-Packard in 2011. HP alleged that Lynch inflated Autonomy’s value, eventually leading to HP taking an $8.8 billion accounting write-down less than a year after acquiring the company.
Lynch was among six people who remain missing, including four British nationals, two Americans, and a Canadian citizen. A spokesman for Italy’s firefighting service said it was unlikely they would find more survivors.
The post Tech Billionaire Missing After Superyacht Sinks in ‘Freak Tornado’ appeared first on VICE.
The post Tech Billionaire Missing After Superyacht Sinks in ‘Freak Tornado’ appeared first on VICE.
