Summary
- Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer, his wife Judy, and Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo are among those missing after a British yacht sank in Sicily
- British tech tycoon Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah are also missing
- The yacht sank in bad weather in the early hours of Monday - 15 were rescued, six are missing, and a man’s body has been recovered
- The body has not been formally identified, but the Palermo coastguard said it was the ship’s cook
- The search is continuing on Tuesday - access to the boat’s cabins has been blocked by furniture
- Separately, it has emerged that Mike Lynch’s co-defendant in a recent major legal case, Stephen Chamberlain, died on Saturday in a road accident
Now, now. Disaster is a bit excessive when all that’s been missing is some billionaires, don’t you think?
I mean, there’s also a bunch of staff on those yachts who didn’t deserve to be eaten by orcas.
Plus at least some environmental damage that results from any boat sinking.
The BBC are reporting that all staff were rescued except for the cook whose body has been recovered for what it’s worth.
AFAIK Mike Lynch was the highest net worth individual on the yacht and Reuters says his net worth is ~$450 million so there may actually not be any missing billionaires. (The Evening Standard claims he had a net worth of £986.4 million which would make him a billionaire in USD but rich lists are often BS so I’m going off what was claimed in court)
Eh, hoping that 18 year old Hannah will be found, she probably hasn’t done anything yet.
Condolences to the crew and their families, and only the crew and their families.
if only Poseidon could claim even more billionaires for us…
Ahem, I have a doctorate in crusader kings 2. A few more rounds of gavelkind will destroy their family
Who will probably spend it all instead of hoarding it until they’re broke at 35 and need to find a real job.
I haven’t been following this, but this thing was pretty large. Did it not have a lifeboat?
kagis
Apparently it did, and a few people made it into it, but not all.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy3el37z4po
Karsten Borner, captain of a nearby boat, said after the storm had passed, the crew noticed the yacht that had been behind them had disappeared.
“We saw a red flare, so my first mate and I went to the position, and we found this life raft drifting,” he told Reuters.
His crew took on board some survivors, including three who were seriously injured.
Sounds like it might have flipped pretty quickly, rather than being a slow sinking:
Witnesses told Italian news agency Ansa that the Bayesian’s anchor was down when the storm struck, causing the 72m (236ft) aluminium mast to break in half and the ship to lose its balance and sink.
The ship’s unusually tall mast may have contributed to its sinking, according to Matthew Schanck, chair of the Maritime Search and Rescue Council.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the mast acted almost like a sail in the strong wind “especially with it being so high”.
The extreme winds could have caught the mast and pushed the yacht over, he said.
One of the survivors, British tourist Charlotte Golunski, told Italian newspaper La Repubblica how she held up her one-year-old daughter Sofia to stop her from drowning.
She said the two of them and her partner James survived only because they were up on deck when the yacht sank.
Was it orcas? Are orcas going to start the revolution by violently suppressing the bourgeoisie?
