'A moment later, she was gone:' Captain involved in rescue describes superyacht sinking

(20 Aug 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Porticello, Sicily, Italy - 20 August 2024
1. Wide of port
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Karsten Borner, Captain of the Sir Robert Baden Powell ship that rescued the Bayesian survivors: ++STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT; PARTLY COVERED WITH SHOTS 3-4++
“We were hit by a violent gust yesterday, a tornado, a water tornado I think they call it. Type three if I know it were. In the morning at three o'clock, around three o'clock, we noticed wet weather coming, and when it appeared we started our engines to keep the ship in position, and we had the other yacht behind us. A moment later, she was gone and it couldn’t be clear, what happened.”
3. Wide of coast guard boat at sea
4. Wide of ships at sea
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Karsten Borner, Captain of the Sir Robert Baden Powell: ++STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT; PARTLY COVERED WITH SHOTS 6-8++
"And after the wind dropped down, we looked around us and didn’t see the yacht, also on the AIS (short-range ship tracking system) it was not visible. And a moment later, somebody of our guests saw a red flare, and then we saw a red flare ourselves, and we took our tender and went in that direction, and found 15 people in the life raft. We took them out of the life raft and brought them with our tender to our ship, and took care of them until the coastal guard appeared - first to take the injured people, and later the rest.”
6. Wide of rescue boat
7. Wide of ships at sea
8. Wide of coast guard boat leaving harbour
STORYLINE:
The captain of a ship involved in the rescue of passengers from the superyacht that sank off the coast of Sicily on Monday was alerted to the disaster by a red flare shortly after bad weather rolled in, he told the Associated Press.

Six people, including British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, were still missing on Tuesday morning.

Karsten Borner, Captain of the Sir Robert Baden Powell, which was moored nearby the Bayesian, described how at around 3am he had noticed "wet weather" coming in.

"We started our engines to keep the ship in position, and we had the other yacht behind us. A moment later, she was gone and it couldn’t be clear, what happened," he said.

After seeing a red flare Borner used his ship's tender to rescue survivors who had taken refuge in a life raft.

Fifteen people survived, including a mother who reported holding her 1-year-old baby over the waves to save her.

One body has been recovered, identified as the on-board chef, officials said.

The Bayesian, a 56-meter (184-foot) British-flagged luxury yacht, had been moored about a half-mile off Ponticello when a freak storm hit.

Civil protection officials said they believed the ship was struck by a tornado over the water, known as a waterspout, which had passed through the area.

Police divers resumed searching Tuesday for six people, including British tech magnate Mike Lynch, believed trapped some 50 meters (164 feet) underwater in the hull of the superyacht.

The search has been slow because the Bayesian is resting at a depth of 50 meters, where divers can stay for only 12-minute shifts, the fire rescue team said in a statement Tuesday.

Divers in wetsuits and oxygen tanks returned to the site to tag-team in 12-minute underwater search shifts where the luxury sailboat went down.

Fire rescue crews reported that divers only made it to the bridge during a first search, and were unable to access the below-deck cabins because they were blocked by furniture that had shifted during the violent storm that toppled the vessel early Monday.




His wife, Angela Bacares, survived.










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