Guests used furniture as ‘improvised ladder’ to escape capsized Bayesian superyacht
Guests used furniture as an “improvised ladder” to try to escape after the Bayesian superyacht capsized last year, a new safety report has said.
The interim report by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) contains the fullest account yet of how the superyacht capsized and the last-ditch efforts of those on board to get out.
It also found that the boat may have been vulnerable to high winds, with gusts exceeding 70 knots (80.05mph) on the day of the incident.
These “vulnerabilities” were said to be “unknown to either the owner or the crew of Bayesian” as they were not included in the stability information book carried on board.
The boat was owned by British tech tycoon Mike Lynch.
He was among seven people – including his 18-year-old daughter Hannah – who died when it sank on 19 August last year, off the coast of Sicily during a storm.
Work is now underway to recover the ship, although progress has been hampered after a diver recently died during salvage efforts.
MAIB principal investigator Simon Graves previously said it’s expected to be lifted and brought to shore by the end of May.
Chaos on board
The report, published Thursday, detailed the events of 18 and 19 August last year, how the Bayesian and its crew acted as a storm swept in and began tilting the boat overnight.
After the crew was woken up by the strong winds and waves, the captain prepared to manoeuvre the ship, the report said.
But winds were said to have suddenly spiked around 4.06am, causing the boat to “violently” tip 90 degrees in less than 15 seconds.
Mike and Hannah Lynch
“People, furniture and loose items fell across the deck,” the report said, adding that in the carnage that followed, at least five people, including Mr Lynch and the captain, were injured.
One of the crew members, who had been keeping a lookout when the storm struck, was tossed overboard into the sea.
After much of the furniture was thrown across the deck and uprooted from the rooms, two of the guests were forced to use “drawers as an improvised ladder” to escape one room.
Others similarly climbed up the walls to get out as water began flooding in over the rails, and entering the inside of the ship.
Across the capsized vessel, the report explained how various groups scrambled to escape.
The Bayesian superyacht.
Pic: Perini Navi
At the port forward wheelhouse door, one of the deckhands who had been on the lookout that night helped lift two stewards onto the upper deck.
Not seeing anyone else inside, they jumped into the sea, and the door was seemingly shut behind them.
According to the report, with Bayesian now sinking, a number of guests and crew found themselves trapped in an air pocket by the same door.
It was only with the help of an injured guest on the outside that they were able to open the door and escape.
Elsewhere, the chief officer had found Mr Lynch and “pushed [him] through cascading water” to get him to the captain.
The pair managed to evacuate two other guests this way.
Read more:
Who was onboard superyacht when it sank?
How investigators will look into superyacht disaster
Salvage operations for the Bayesian are expected to continue this month. Pic: AP
However, amid the rough weather, the chief officer was swept to the back of the saloon.
The report details his precarious escape, jumping into the water, diving down and opening the sliding doors in the room to be able to swim free of the ship.
The report said the captain organised the “abandonment” of the ship, and as they floated there, some guests had to use cushions as improvised life rafts.
Inquest proceedings in the UK are looking at the deaths of Mr Lynch and his daughter, as well as Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer and his wife Judy, who were all British nationals.
The others who died in the sinking were US lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo, and Canadian-Antiguan national Recaldo Thomas, who was working as a chef on the vessel.
Fifteen people, including Mr Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares, were rescued.
The fatal boat trip was a celebration of Mr Lynch’s acquittal in a US trial after he was accused of a massive fraud over the sale of Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
World
Washington DC shooting: Trump condemns ‘monstrous’ attack near White House – and says suspect is Afghan national
Donald Trump has called for every Afghan national who entered the US under the Biden administration to be investigated following the shooting of two National Guard troops near the White House.
The president said the “monstrous, ambush-style attack” was carried out by an Afghan national who arrived in September 2021 during America’s chaotic withdrawal from Kabul.
“This attack underscores the single greatest national security threat facing our nation,” Mr Trump said in an address to the nation from Florida.
He vowed to “reexamine every single alien” who has entered the US from Afghanistan under the previous government, and said: “I am determined to ensure the animal who perpetrated this atrocity will pay the steepest possible price.”
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Trump condemns ‘animal’ shooting suspect
Suspect to face terror probe
America’s citizenship and immigration office said it had stopped processing all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals indefinitely.
Sky’s US partner network, NBC News, reports the suspect in custody is 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal.
Both guardsmen were shot in the head, according to NBC, citing senior officials briefed on the investigation.
Wednesday’s shooting – carried out with a handgun – will be investigated by the FBI as a possible act of terror.
The White House was placed into lockdown following the incident, while Mr Trump is away for Thanksgiving.
Pics: AP
Victims in ‘critical condition’
West Virginia’s governor initially said both victims were members of his state’s National Guard and had died from their injuries – but later posted to say there were “conflicting reports about the condition of our two Guard members”.
Patrick Morrisey had said: “These brave West Virginians lost their lives in the service of their country.”
Hundreds of National Guard members have been patrolling the capital after Mr Trump issued an emergency order in August, which federalised the local police force and sent in the guard from eight states and the District of Columbia.
Mr Trump has announced an extra 500 troops will be deployed in the wake of Wednesday’s shooting.
FBI director Kash Patel said the troops were “brazenly attacked in a horrendous act of violence”.
At a news conference, he clarified they were in a “critical condition”.
Pic: AP
Former president Joe Biden, who was heavily criticised by Mr Trump in his address, said he and his wife Jill were “heartbroken” by the shooting.
“Violence of any kind is unacceptable, and we must all stand united against it,” said a statement.
How the attack unfolded
Jeff Carroll, chief of the metropolitan police department in the area, said the attack began at 2.15pm local time (7.15pm in the UK) while National Guard members were on “high visibility patrols in the area”.
He said: “A suspect came around the corner, raised his arm with a firearm and discharged it at the National Guard.
“The National Guard members were… able to – after some back and forth – able to subdue the individual and bring them into custody.”
Washington DC mayor Muriel Bowser called the attack a “targeted shooting”.
Pics: AP
Social media footage showed first responders attempting CPR on one of the soldiers as they treated the other on a pavement covered in glass.
Nearby other officers could be seen restraining an individual on the ground.
Emergency personnel cordon off an area near where the National Guard soldiers were shot. Pics: AP
The scene was cordoned off by police tape, while agents from the US Secret Service and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives attended the scene, as National Guard troops stood sentry nearby.
The FBI was also on the scene, the agency’s director said.
World
Lindsay and Craig Foreman: Son of British couple detained in Iran says government not doing enough
The son of a British couple detained in Iran has said the UK government is not doing enough to secure their release.
Lindsay and Craig Foreman, from East Sussex, were taken into custody in Kerman in January during a motorcycle tour around the world and later charged with espionage, which they deny.
In August, the pair were moved to different jails in Tehran, before being reunited in October at Evin prison, where British-Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was held between 2016 and 2022.
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. Pic: Reuters
‘You need to stand up for your citizens’
Lindsay’s son, Joe Bennett, told Sky News there are too many similarities with Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s situation.
“They themselves are being very passive,” he said of the UK government.
“They’ve got two UK citizens that are accused of spying for the British state, but they’re not coming out and defending them and calling [it out] for what it is.
“You need to stand up for your citizens and call it out.”
Speaking to The World With Dominic Waghorn, Mr Bennett dismissed Iran’s accusation of espionage against his mother and her partner – and accused the regime of “hostage taking”.
Lindsay Foreman with her son Joe Bennett. Pic: Family handout
‘They’re not spies’
Asked whether he had any sympathy with the argument that making too much of the situation makes their release less likely, Mr Bennett said there was “no justification” for the Foreign Office taking such an approach.
“If they’re on charges of shoplifting, potentially that’s understandable, let’s see the court of law, let’s go through it if they’ve been caught of some wrongdoing,” he said.
“They haven’t, and they’ve been accused of espionage, which is state-level political charges, right?
“They’re not spies, it’s quite simple.”
Read more from Sky News:
Court hearing ‘did not go well’ for British couple
Iran protests ‘bring back memories’ of helplessness
Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband Richard is supporting Mr Bennett’s case.
He told Sky News: “It does feel to me that I’m hearing too many echoes of our experience in the experience of Joe’s family and others.”
Joe Bennett and Richard Ratcliffe
The Foreign Office warns all British and British-Iranian nationals against all travel to Iran because of “significant risk of arrest, questioning, or detention”.
In October, a spokesperson told Sky News the department was deeply concerned by reports that the Foremans had been charged with espionage and that it was providing them with consular support.
Soldiers have appeared on state TV in Guinea-Bissau to say the country’s military has seized power, accusing its president of interfering in Sunday’s election as he revealed he had been “deposed”.
Military spokesperson Dinis N’Tchama said in a statement that the military had decided to “immediately depose the president of the republic” and suspend all government institutions.
He said they acted in response to the “discovery of an ongoing plan” that he said aimed to destabilise the country by attempting to “manipulate electoral results”.
Guinea Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo at the UN in 2023. File pic: Reuters
The “scheme was set up by some national politicians with the participation of a well-known drug lord, and domestic and foreign nationals”, Mr N’Tchama said, but gave no details.
The country has emerged as a hub for drug trafficking between Latin America and Europe.
The electoral process was being suspended immediately, along with the activities of the media, while the country’s borders were being closed, he said.
Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embaló told French television network France 24: “I have been deposed.”
French news outlet Jeune Afrique quoted Mr Embaló as saying he was arrested in what he called a coup led by the army chief of staff but did not suffer violence.
An international election observer told Associated Press the president “has been speaking to people saying he’s being held by the military”.
Gunfire was heard near the presidential palace in the capital, Bissau, around noon on Wednesday.
A palace official said a group of armed men tried to attack the building, leading to an exchange of gunfire with guards.
Gunshots were also heard around the nearby national electoral commission, an interior ministry official said.
Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity.
Roads leading to the palace were closed off, with checkpoints manned by heavily armed and masked soldiers, an AP reporter said.
Meanwhile, Mr Embaló and opposition candidate Fernando Dias da Costa both claimed victory on Tuesday in the presidential and legislative elections held on Sunday, even though official provisional results were not expected until Thursday.
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Mr Embaló, who was elected in February 2020, was due to stand down earlier this year after serving a five-year term.
That was extended until 4 September by the country’s supreme court, but voting was delayed until this month.
Guinea-Bissau has seen four coups and numerous attempted ones since it gained independence in 1974, including one reported last month.
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