Five bodies found by divers searching sunken Bayesian superyacht

Five bodies have been found by divers searching the wreck of the superyacht that sunk off the coast of Sicily.

Four bodies have been brought ashore and efforts to recover the fifth will continue tomorrow.

The body of the yacht’s chef, Recaldo Thomas, had been recovered already, the Italian coastguard confirmed to Sky News on Tuesday. Today’s discoveries bring the total number of confirmed dead to six.

Authorities are yet to confirm the identity of the bodies found on Wednesday. One person remains missing.

Superyacht search – latest updates

British tech billionaire Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter were among those missing after the Bayesian went down as a result of being hit by a tornado on Monday morning.

Six were missing in total – with Morgan Stanley International chairman Jonathan Bloomer and US lawyer Chris Morvillo also unaccounted for, along with their wives, Judy Bloomer and Neda Morvillo.

Twenty-two people were on board the vessel, 15 of whom were rescued – including Briton Charlotte Golunski and her one-year-old daughter Sofia.

Giovanni Costantino, the CEO of The Italian Sea Group, which owns the firm which built the yacht, said he had been left in “disbelief” at the news of the Bayesian sinking while anchored off the coast of Sicily.

“Being the manufacturer of Perini and knowing very well how the boats have always been designed and built,” he said, “and as Perini is a sailing ship… sailing ships are renowned to be the safest ever.”

He added their structure and keel made them “unsinkable”.

Divers involved in the search and rescue operation for the sunken Costa Concordia in 2013 have been called in to stretch the amount of time underwater to 20 minutes per dive. For the past two days, a major challenge for divers had been their limit of 12 minutes on each dive, including the time to go down and come back up.

But the Costa Concordia divers have cylinders containing particular micelles which allow for a longer dive.

Divers have been looking for survivors in the hope that some might be trapped in air pockets inside the ship, but experts believe the chances any are left alive are slim.

Divers from the local fire service have been entering the water with torches attached to their headgear at the site of the shipwreck on Wednesday afternoon.

A police boat was also at the scene, while a helicopter hovered overhead.

Dr Jamie Pringle, a reader in forensic geoscience at Keele University, told Sky News there have been cases where people have survived for about 60 hours in similar depths of water.

But he says they are “very rare” and the longer time goes on, the less likely it is they will be found alive.

Simon Boxall, a senior lecturer in oceanography at the University Of Southampton, said it is “fairly certain” they are still on board.

He said it is also possible they were thrown from the boat and into the sea, so a search of the surrounding waters will continue.

Sky News correspondent Ashna Hurynag reported that eight divers from across Italy had been working to find survivors.

In total, there are between 20 and 50 emergency personnel involved in the operation.

The Bayesian, a 56-metre (184ft) British-flagged yacht, went down in a storm early on Monday as it was moored a short distance offshore.