The wife of missing UK billionaire Mike Lynch has described how the superyacht they were travelling on tilted before sinking, and reportedly had to walk on broken glass to escape it.
Speaking to Italy’s La Repubblica, Angela Bacares said that she and her husband were woken up at 4am (local time) on Monday when the yacht, the Bayesian, “tilted”.
The 57-year-old told the publication that they initially weren’t worried, and she got out of bed to see what was happening. Glass then shattered, causing confusion.
Bacares sustained injuries to her feet likely caused by walking on broken glass during the sinking, the outlet reported.
The injuries have confined her to a wheelchair, and she also has bandages on other parts of her body, the report said.
The 183ft superyacht was carrying 22 people when it capsized early Monday morning while docked outside the Sicilian port of Porticello. Six people, including Lynch and his daughter, remain missing, while one body has been recovered, local media reported.
Italian news agency Ansa reported that the vessel capsized when a sea tornado, or waterspout, hit the area during sudden storms.
It cited witnesses saying that the boat’s mast broke while it was anchored in the storm, causing it to lose balance and capsize.
It said that rescuers believe the bodies of the missing are trapped in the vessel, which is about 50m below the water’s surface.
The director general of Sicily’s civil protection agency, Salvatore Cocina, told the BBC that Hannah Lynch, Mike Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, is among those missing.
Dr Domenico Cipolla, who works are the Palermo hospital where some of the survivors are being treated, said that they are “very tired” and “constantly asking about the missing people.”
“We have given the survivors this information, but they are talking and crying all the time because they have realised that there is little hope of finding their friends alive.”
Lynch is one of the UK’s leading tech entrepreneurs, having founded the software company Autonomy, which was sold to Hewlett-Packard for US$11 billion.
The sale resulted in a legal battle, with Lynch acquitted on fraud charges in the US in June.
According to reports, Lynch was celebrating the acquittal on the yacht trip before it capsized.
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