Italy opens manslaughter probe in Lynch yacht sinking

TERMINI IMERESE, Italy:An Italian prosecutor has opened a manslaughter investigation into the deaths of British tech magnate Mike Lynch and six other people who were killed when a luxury yacht sank in stormy weather off Sicily this week.

The head of the public prosecutor’s office of Termini Imerese, Ambrogio Cartosio, said that while the yacht had been hit by a very sudden meteorological event, it was “plausible” that crimes of multiple manslaughter and causing a shipwreck through negligence had been committed.

So far the investigation was not aimed at any individual person, he told a news conference.

The disaster would be even more painful if the investigation showed it was caused “by behaviours that were not aligned to the responsibilities that everyone needs to take in shipping,” Cartosio said.

The captain James Cutfield and the other survivors have been questioned this week by authorities. None of them have commented publicly on how the ship went down.

The sinking has puzzled naval marine experts who say a boat like the Bayesian, built by Italian high-end yacht manufacturer Perini, should have withstood the storm and in any case should not have sunk as quickly as it did.

Pulling the Bayesian out of the sea will help investigators determine what happened, but the operation is likely to be complex and costly.