Morgan Stanley International Chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife were among six people still missing after a mega-yacht, The Bayesian, capsized off the coast of Italy, according to officials and reports. The 184-foot luxury sailboat was carrying a crew of ten and twelve passengers when it went down after being struck by a tornado off the port of Porticello, Salvatore Cocina, head of the civil protection agency in Sicily, said.
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, have also not been found since the ship wrecked. The Italian coast guard deployed divers to search for survivors some 160 feet deep, with authorities believing that some of the missing passengers may have been trapped inside their rooms when the yacht sank.
Among those who managed to escape was Charlotte Golunski, who saved her 1-year-old daughter, Sophia, by keeping her afloat in the rough waters. Both mother and child are recovering in a local hospital, with Domenico Cipolla, a chief physician at the Di Cristina hospital in Palermo, confirming that they are in good condition, albeit with some minor abrasions.
The trip had been organized by Lynch to celebrate his legal victory after being acquitted of fraud charges related to the sale of his software company, Autonomy, to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion in 2011. In a shocking twist, Lynch’s co-defendant in the case, Stephen Chamberlain, died on Monday after being struck by a car in Cambridgeshire, UK.
The Bayesian was built by Italian shipbuilder Perini in 2008 and was last refitted in 2020. It is owned by a firm called Revtom Limited, of which Angela Bacares – wife of co-defendant Lynch – is named as the sole shareholder.
