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THE wife of missing tech tycoon Mike Lynch is said to be in a state of shock after escaping the horror Bayesian superyacht sinking.
Angela Baceras, 57, survived the freakish event on Monday, when the Bayesian was blasted by massive gales during a thunderstorm.
Mike and wife Angela, who is said to be in shock at a hotel
Divers are continuing the desperate searchVigili del Fuoco/AFP via Getty Images
CCTV captured the yacht ensnared in the huge stormIPA/SplashNews
She is now anxiously waiting for an update on Mike, 59, as well as their 18-year-old daughter Hannah, who remain missing in the seas off Sicily.
Angela is staying at a hotel with other survivors and is locked “in a state of shock”, a security staff member told Mirror.
Today marks the search’s third day, with six people – including four Brits – still at large.
The hotel is a short drive from Porticello harbour, near the yacht’s last known location before it sank.
The £14million luxury vessel capsized on Monday after it was caught in a tornado.
Divers are struggling to descend to the wreck because it is a staggering 50 metres deep.
Powerful water pressure means they can only search for periods of 12 minutes before having to rise back up to the surface.
A “world of objects” is also blocking access, delaying the diving team’s bid to scour the superyacht‘s rooms.
Another team of divers yesterday set out from Porticello, near Palermo, as the desperate search continued.
Italian fire service Vigilli del Fuoco said entering the yacht was proving “complex” but plans were underway to cast aside obstacles for easier access.
Rescuers are now sending in an underwater robot to help survey the wreck because they can last longer at the depth than the divers.
Angela is one of the 15 people to have been escaped doom as the boat sank, with the yacht’s chef tragically found dead.
Specialist cave divers have also been deployed with narrow pathways proving a challenge.
Horrifying CCTV captured the moment the superyacht became ensnared in the storm, with video showing lights of the doomed vessel in the distance slowly disappear as it is swallowed by the sea.
The new clip came from cameras just 200m from where the boat sank.
One witness said he looked at his cameras when he heard news of the sinking, according to Giornale Di Sicilia.
Who are the six still missing from the Bayesian yacht tragedy?
By Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
THE BAYESIAN superyacht was hosting a lavish party for 12 guests, with 10 crew also onboard.
After 15 people were rescued from the water on Monday, six people remain missing and one has been found dead.Italian authorities said the man recovered near the yacht wreckage was the chef working onboard.
Four of the missing are British and two are American.Mike Lynch, 59, and his daughter Hannah, 18, are among the four Brits lost at sea.
International chairman of bank giant Morgan Stanley, Brit Jonathan Bloomer, 70, is also missing along with his wife Judy.
As is top New York lawyer Chris Morvillo, a solicitor at major firm Clifford Chance who worked for Mike Lynch, and his wife Neda.
“In just sixty seconds – says the owner of the villa – you can see the ship disappear.
“Of about twenty cameras installed in the house, only one was not disturbed by the wind and rain. You can clearly see what is happening.
“There was nothing that could be done for the boat. It disappeared in a very short time.”
The Italian coastguard has vowed not to give up until it finds the six people feared dead inside the sunken yacht.
Spokesman Vincenzo Zagarola said of the missing six yesterday: “We think they are still inside the boat, that is our very hard idea.
“Of course, we do not exclude that they are not inside the boat, but we know the boat sank quickly.
“We suppose that the six people missing may not have had time to get out of the boat.”
It comes as…
- ‘UK’s Bill Gates’ Mike Lynch & his daughter Hannah, 18, remain missing on the wreck
- Also missing are Jonathan Bloomer, Judy Bloomer, Chris Morvillo and Neda Morvillo
- Lynch’s wife revealed how she was awoken by a ’tilt’ as the yacht sunk
- The captain of the Bayesian broke his silence on the horror storm
- Experts believe the yacht’s ‘tallest mast in the world‘ may have contributed to the disaster
- Pictures showed the tiny raft that saved up to 15 people
- Frantic text messages from the survivors revealed the chaos
One expert at the scene in Sicily told reporters an early focus would be on whether the access hatches into the vessel were closed before the tornado struck.
Luca Mercalli, president of the Italian Meteorological Society, also said that in light of the weather warnings the crew should have woken the guests and given them life jackets.
Survivors are expected to soon be interviewed, with emergency workers, divers and the coast guard to also give evidence.
Who is Mike Lynch?
By Georgie English, Foreign News Reporter
ENTREPRENEUR Mike Lynch is still believed to be missing hours after a £14m luxury yacht capsized in a tornado off the coast of Sicily.
The tech tycoon, dubbed “Britain’s Bill Gates”, was one of the 22 people sailing onboard the £166,000 a week vessel, the Telegraph reported this afternoon.
Lynch, 59, sold Autonomy Corporation – a tech company for $11b to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
He has also been involved in Invoke Capital and cybersecurity company Darktrace.
He was awarded an OBE for his services to enterprise in 2006.
Born in Ilford, Lynch had a firefighter father from County Cork and a nurse mother from County Tipperary.
Away from work, Mike is married to wife Angela Bacares and the pair have two children together.
In 2023, the Sunday Times rich list set the couple’s value at £852m.
Just weeks ago, Lynch was acquitted of criminal charges by a jury in San Francisco after a 12-year legal battle over the $11bn sale of his firm, Autonomy, to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
He was extradited to the US on fraud charges back in 2023 with a judge setting his bail at £79m.
US Marshsals took Lynch into custody at Heathrow, putting him in chains and bundling him on board a United Airlines flight.
However, he had a few things in his favour.
The nature of the case led to a boring and turgid trial, including painstaking parades of emails, reports and spreadsheets filled with jargon, leaving jurors glassy-eyed.
One was even dismissed because he repeatedly fell asleep.
Lynch argued that any questionable activity was entirely immaterial in the context of a thriving business bringing in hundreds of millions a year.
While his lawyers claimed the books were approved by outside accountants and that, by British standards, the deals in question were appropriately accounted for.
Lynch was used as the final witness and rather than going “right for the jugular”, as his head lawyer Brian Heberlig said, the prosecutors simply “reviewed a chronology of documents, with no probing questions”. The jury agreed.
The Bayesian (left) was a notable superyacht before it capsized and sank
The search is proving difficult due to obstacles and depthEPA/IGOR PETYX
Mike’s standing in tech is such that he is dubbed Britain’s Bill GatesREUTERS/Henry Nicholls
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