The body of the British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch was among those recovered by Italian divers, an official in the Sicilian capital of Palermo said on Thursday, confirming that he was killed when a violent storm struck his yacht earlier this week.
Of the 22 people on board when the yacht was caught in a violent storm off the coast of Sicily early Monday, nine crew members and six passengers survived.
As of Thursday afternoon, Italian recovery teams had retrieved the bodies of the one remaining crew member and five passengers who were on the yacht, which now lies in 165 feet of water off the port of Porticello, and were searching for one more passenger.
The death of Mr. Lynch was confirmed by Massimo Mariani, the prefect of Palermo, who said that the remaining person whose body has not been recovered was the technology entrepreneur’s daughter Hannah.
The others who were missing were Jonathan Bloomer, the chairman of Morgan Stanley International; his wife, Judy Bloomer; Christopher J. Morvillo, a lawyer at Clifford Chance; and his wife, Neda Morvillo.
The yacht was caught in a sudden downpour. Weather experts said that strong winds and lightning had hit the area and that the yacht had most likely been struck by air generated within a thunderstorm descending rapidly or by a waterspout, similar to a tornado over water.
Rescue teams involving deep sea divers with the Italian firefighters’ corps, coordinated by the coast guard, as well as helicopters and rescue ships, had worked to reach the hull of the ship, which had settled on its side on the sea floor. The depth limited how long the divers could be underwater, slowing the search efforts.
Carlo Dall’Oppio, the national head of Italy’s firefighters, said on Thursday that the boat was tilted by 90 degrees on the sea bottom. He said the survivors were found “in the cabins,” although it remained unclear if they were all found in the same cabin or in different ones.
The rescue teams managed to recover four bodies on Wednesday and one on Thursday, bringing them ashore in body bags in front of a crowd of reporters and onlookers.
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