Bayesian yacht sinking: Banking boss among four victims who ‘suffocated in cabin air bubble’
Four of the victims of the Bayesian yacht disaster died after oxygen ran out in an air bubble on the sunken boat, it has been reported.
Autopsies over the past few days on four of those who died have revealed an absence of water in their lungs, suggesting they suffocated as the air became saturated with carbon dioxide, Italian publication La Repubblica said.
The outlet reported post-mortems showed four people died from “atypical drowning”, with “no water in their lungs, trachea and stomach”. There were no signs of external injuries.
The results appear to back up investigators’ opinions that the victims sought out air pockets inside the ship before they died.
The incident, which claimed the lives of seven people including British tech magnate Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah, unfolded last month after a violent storm hit the yacht off the coast of Sicily.
The yacht sank quickly, trapping the victims below deck as it settled on its right side. Divers who retrieved the victims’ bodies on board found five of them, including Mr Lynch, in one cabin on the left side of the yacht. Hannah Lynch’s body was the last to be found, in a separate cabin.
The body of the yacht’s chef, Recaldo Thomas, was also recovered floating near the wreckage, which lies 50 metres below the surface.
Investigators believe the victims sought out remaining air pockets as the vessel moved sharply to the right while sinking.
However, it is unlikely to have lasted long as it would have been “small and quickly filled with rising levels of toxic carbon dioxide”.
The findings of the autopsies, detailed in La Repubblica on Wednesday, appeared to support this theory.
Among the victims examined so far were Jonathan Bloomer, the international chairman of Morgan Stanley Bank; his wife Judith, a psychotherapist; Christopher Morvillo, a US lawyer; and his wife Neda, a jewellery designer.
Previous reports suggested Mr and Mrs Morvillo, whose autopsies were carried out first, both died by drowning.
But post-mortems have found the lungs of the four people were “not fully of water”, which is otherwise known as “dry drowning”.
La Repubblica reported Ms Barcares, who is also the CEO of the company that owns the superyacht, made it to the deck barefoot but only thought about saving her daughter and her husband trapped below.
