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3 months ago
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THE WIFE of missing British billionaire tycoon Mike Lynch has revealed how she was woken by the tilting superyacht moments before it sank.
Angela Bacares, 57, now in a wheelchair after walking on broken glass to escape, is waiting for news of her husband and daughter Hannah, 18, who are still missing.
Mike Lynch with his wife Angela Bacares
The ‘Bayesian’ sailing boat, in Palermo, Sicily
Zuma Press
Italian firefighters transport a body bag amid the search on Monday
Angela told Italian outlet La Repubblica that she and her husband woke up at around 4am on Monday when they felt a sudden shift from onboard the £14million superyacht.
It sunk over 160ft at around 5am local time when the mast collapsed and the vessel capsized, with six people still missing off the coast of Sicily.
Some 22 horrified passengers, made up of mostly Brits, screamed in fear as the boat flipped over.
Angela, who suffered horrific injuries to both feet believed to be from broken glass, told the Italian outlet of the “slight tilt” she felt onboard before tragedy struck.
Top brass at investment bank giant Morgan Stanley, Jonathan Bloomer, 70, is among the four Brits still missing with two Americans also lost at sea.
The desperate search continued into the night on Monday after 15 people were rescued, with renewed efforts continuing today.
Torrential rain and wind battered much of the Porticello port in Palermo overnight on Sunday – striking the 183ft superyacht with swirling columns of air that formed waterspouts.
Witnesses said a twister snapped the 246ft boat mast – the world’s second tallest – clean in half.
Others told Italian outlet Ansa that the anchor was down when the storm hit on Monday morning, causing the ship to lose its balance.
Divers confirmed they had found a wreckage some 50m under the surface on Monday.
The body of one unidentified man has been found near the destroyed ship.
Fifteen people were rescued from the water, including a one-year-old British girl, whose mum held her above her head before they were saved.
Lynch, previously dubbed “the British Bill Gates”, was hosting a party on the boat along with his wife and daughter.
The business tycoon – worth an estimated £852m – was surrounded by members of his legal firm and company Invoke Capital to celebrate a US jury clearing him of fraud earlier this summer.
He was extradited to the US in 2023 over the £8.5billion sale of his software firm Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in 2011 and was accused of inflating the company’s value.
The dad-of-two had spent a year under house arrest in the States.
He was cleared of 16 counts of wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy, following a trial in San Francisco in June.
In a bizarre twist of fate, it was revealed yesterday that Lynch’s ex-colleague and fraud trial co-defendant Stephen Chamberlain died days before the yacht tragedy.
The heroic captain of another boat who helped rescue the 15 people pulled to safety said he watched the Bayesian disappear under the waves.
Karsten Borner revealed his boat was forced to avoid hitting the £14million vessel after a tornado ripped through the Sicilian coast.
And local fisherman Pietro Asciutto told reporters he watched the boat capsize, adding: “I was at home when the tornado hit.
“I immediately closed all the windows. Then I saw the boat, it had only one mast, it was very large. I saw it sink suddenly.
“Shortly after I went down to get a better look at what was happening. The boat was still floating, then suddenly it disappeared. I saw it sink with my own eyes.”
Luca Mercalli, president of the Italian Meteorological Society, said 200kmh winds could be felt over Sunday through Monday.
He described the weather as: “A so-called funnel cloud forms, generating winds of up to 200kmh which can create a water spout at sea by sucking water into the air.
“The event can be restricted to a few hundred metres and be over in ten minutes.”
Perini Navi
Mike Lynch’s former colleague Stephen Chamberlain – who died after being hit by a car
Heroic captain Karsten Borner who helped rescue 15 tourists from the doomed Bayesian superyachtBBC
English (US)