The wife of missing British tech tycoon Mike Lynch is now reportedly recovering from her injuries in a wheelchair whilst she is waiting for updates on her husband and 18-year-old daughter after Mr Lynch’s superyacht sunk.
Angela Bacares, 57, has revealed that the first sign of the freak waterspout that sunk the luxury sailboat Bayesian just before 5am this morning was a ‘slight tilt’ that woke her up.
Ms Bacares, who was among the fifteen people who were rescued from the 180ft ship, told Italian media that both her husband and their daughter Hannah, 18, are missing after the yacht sank as she anxiously waits for updates.
Mr Lynch’s wife told La Repubblica that she and her husband woke up at 4am when the boat suddenly ’tilted’.
Mrs Bacares said that they were not worried at the time, but that she still got up to see what was happening, until glass shattered and created confusion on board.
She sustained abrasions on her feet – likely after walking on glass shards during the sinking – which have left her unable to walk and sitting in a wheelchair, La Repubblica reports, while she also has bandages on others part of her body.
The 180ft superyacht was docked off the coast of Porticello, near Palermo, when a waterspout struck the area just before 5am, wrecking the boat and causing it to rapidly disappear beneath the waves.
The Bayesian carried ten crewmembers, Mr Lynch, his wife and daughter as well as nine other guests.
Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares (right) was among the fifteen people who were rescued from the yacht
A handout photo made available on August 19 by Perini Navi Press Office shows the ‘Bayesian’ sailing boat, in Palermo, Sicily, Italy
Tech tycoon and married father-of-two Mr Lynch is pictured here with his wife Angela
A survivor leaves the Coast Guard Headquarters after a sailboat sank in the early hours of Monday, off the coast of Ponticello, near the Sicilian city of Palermo, Italy, August 19
Experienced cave divers for deep sea recoveries arrive at the pier as a rescue operation continues for the missing people who were on board a sailboat that sank, in Palermo, Sicily, Italy, August 19
British tech tycoon Mike Lynch is understood to be among the British tourists who are missing after the the Bayesian superyacht sank
‘The survivors are very tired and are constantly asking about the missing people,’ Doctor Domenico Cipolla, Director of Paediatric Admission and Medicine and Surgery at ‘Di Cristina’ hospital in Palermo, said.
‘To my knowledge, there is only one body that has been found, the others are still missing. 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,’ he added.
British mother Charlotte Golunski and her one-year-old baby called Sofia were reported to be among those rescued by a nearby sailboat, with Dr Cipolla confirming that they were treated at the Di Cristina hospital.
‘By the way, I know that there were some young people on board, some very young people. They are very tired and they continually thank us for the care and attention we are giving them and the little girl. They are very tired but they are very sweet people,’ Dr Cipolla said.
He also said that Ms Golunski told doctors at the hospital that the sailing trip was part of a ‘corporate holiday’.
Ms Golunski, 35, who is listed as working for Mr Lynch’s company Invoke Capital on Linkedin, has described how she momentarily lost her daughter in the ‘fury of the waves’, before finding her and managing to get them both to safety.
Meanwhile six of the passengers – who include four British and two American citizens – still remain unaccounted for, with divers desperately searching the wreck 160ft beneath the water.
The rescue operation will continue overnight, Salvo Cocina of Sicily’s civil protection agency said.
Tragically, the body of Canadian Ricardo Thomas, who was working as the boat’s chef, was found floating alongside the vessel earlier today.
A British mother, named as Charlotte Golunski, and her one-year-old baby were also reported to be among those rescued by a nearby sailboat
A handout photo made available on 19 August 2024 by Perini Navi Press Office shows the ‘Bayesian’ sailing boat, in Palermo, Sicily, Italy
Cave divers arrive to join in the rescue operation in Palermo, Sicily, on August 19
A local Facebook group shared a picture of the yacht (left) at anchor last night. The vessel has been named as the Bayesian, and is said to sail under a British flag
Ms Golunski ‘had injuries that we treated’, according to Dr Cipolla (pictured), with reports saying she suffered an injury to her shoulder
There are fears that those who are still missing became trapped in their cabins, with divers earlier reporting that they saw ‘bodies through the portholes’ of the yacht, according to Italian media.
Francesco Venuto, the spokesperson for Sicily’s civil protection agency, also told the BBC that they ‘think [the corpses] must be there [in the boat]’.
He added: ‘We’ve been searching all day with helicopters and boats, we’ve found nothing. That wouldn’t make sense, in [these] conditions we should have found something by now.’
The passengers on board were mainly British, according to reports, while citizens from New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Canada, the US and two dual British and French nationals were also said to be on board.
Some of the group are reported to have been colleagues and their family members who were on holiday together in Sicily.
The yacht is owned by Isle of Man-based firm Revtom, according to the BBC, the legal owner of which is Bacares, Mr Lynch’s wife.
A member of staff who worked at Mr Lynch’s Chelsea home has told The Times that the businessman ‘clearly had a lot of pride in the yacht’.
The vessel was still at anchor near the port when the waterspout struck, witnesses have said, with the storm breaking its mast and causing the vessel to lose its balance and capsize.
‘We didn’t see it coming,’ passenger James Catfield told La Repubblica.
The Italian Coastguard said in a statement that a nearby boat offered assistance to people before emergency services arrived.
The Sir Robert BP, a Dutch sailing ship which had been anchored by the Bayesian, is believed to have rescued the 15 survivors.
The British-flagged Bayesian is thought to have arrived in Porticello after a stopping in Milazzo, around 100 miles up the coast towards the Italian mainland
A frantic search is underway at the site of the shipwreck after the Bayesian sank this morning
Italian Coast Guard Command teams and firefighters are carrying out search and rescue operations with helicopters and ships to find missing people after a yacht sank on Monday due to a storm east of Palermo in southern Italy on August 19
Nautical maps show the last known location of the Bayesian just after 2am local time, when it was at anchor
Karsten Borner, the captain of the boat, has described how his vessel was battered by strong gusts, with his team working to stabilise it and manoeuvre it to avoid hitting the Bayesian nearby.
‘We managed to keep the ship in position, and after the storm was over, we noticed that the ship behind us was gone,’ he said.
Once the storm subsided, Borner said he and his first mate noticed a flare in the water, and made their way towards it.
There they found the lifeboat with those who had escaped inside, including the one-year-old baby and mother Ms Golunski.
She told Italian media: ‘For two seconds I lost my baby in the sea, then I immediately hugged her again amid the fury of the waves.’
‘I held her afloat with all my strength, my arms stretched upwards to keep her from drowning,’ she added.
‘It was all dark. In the water I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I screamed for help but all I could hear around me was the screams of others.’
Incredibly, a group of 15 of the passengers managed to inflate a lifeboat and clamber aboard, before being rescued by a nearby vessel.
The mother, who is in hospital with her baby where she received treatment for a minor shoulder injury, described the ordeal as ‘terrible’, detailing how ‘in a few minutes the boat was hit by a very strong wind and sank shortly after.’
Ms Golunski and her little girl were taken to be assessed at the Children’s Hospital in Palermo. The baby is said to be doing fine and is unharmed, with tests only carried out as a precaution.
Ms Golunski ‘had injuries that we treated’, according to Dr Cipolla, with reports saying she suffered an injury to her shoulder.
‘[She] only has abrasions and a wound that needed stitching,’ Dr Cipolla said.
The child’s father, a British man called James Emsley, was taken ‘to the adult emergency room where his wounds were sutured’ before he was reunited with Ms Golunski and their daughter Sofia, Dr Cipolla said.
‘We reunited the whole family in a room in the emergency room. They are here with us,’ he added.
The group were staying on the vessel, which has been named as the Bayesian – a luxury yacht which sails under the British flag
Mr Lynch (second left) is seen in the early days of his techology firm Autonomy in Cambridge
The 59-year-old, who was a billionaire at the height of his wealth, has previously been dubbed Britain’s Bill Gates after he made his fortune thanks to his company Autonomy (file image)
Five other people were taken to the Bagheria territorial emergency point. Others reportedly required no hospital treatment, and spoke to authorities about what happened as the incident is investigated.
A helicopter, coastguard vessels and firefighters been scouring the scene of the wreck for those who are still missing.
Expert divers reached the hull earlier this morning, with more specialist teams brought in as the day went on cables reportedly fixed between the yacht and the surface to allow easier descent.
‘The specialists are able to get into small spaces underwater,’ a spokesman said.
Nautical maps show the last known location of the Bayesian just after 2am local time, when it was at anchor.
The boat is thought to have arrived in Porticello after a stopping in Milazzo, around 100 miles up the coast towards the Italian mainland.
The tragedy comes just weeks after Mr Lynch was acquitted of criminal charges by a jury in San Francisco in June, vindicating the entrepreneur after a 12-year legal battle over the $11bn sale of his firm, Autonomy, to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.
The 59-year-old, who was a billionaire at the height of his wealth, has previously been dubbed Britain’s Bill Gates after he made his fortune thanks to his company. Its software drew on the Bayesian mathematical theory after which the yacht was named.
Mr Lynch had invited guests from legal firm Clifford Chance as well as his own company Invoke Capital to celebrate him being acquitted of the criminal charges, the Telegraph reports.
One of the Clifford Chance lawyers on board the Bayesian when it sank was 36-year-old Ayla Ronald. Her father, Lin Ronald, confirmed that the sailing trip was supposed to be a celebration of Mr Lynch’s acquittal.
‘I have texted with my daughter and she hasn’t given me any updates about missing personnel or saved personnel. She has only said to me that there are deaths, and she and her partner are alive,’ Mr Donald told the Telegraph.
